I'm going on an adventure too!
by thislongstoryshort
Summary: The 13 dwarves visit Bilbo and his younger sister Daisy. Daisy is more inclined to the adventure than Bilbo and tags along. Thorin finds himself fascinated by the hobbit woman. Bilbo quickly suspects that Daisy's coming has something to do with her strange birthmark which he now believes are really dwarf runes. Rated T for future chapters (PS I'm really bad at summaries)
1. Daisy Baggins

"Excuse me, Sir, but are you lost?" a voice softly called to Thorin out of the darkness. It had been the third time Thorin had passed this particular hill.

Thorin looked up and saw the owner of the voice, and young hobbit woman, perched on top of a hill. "No, I just choose to walk this way," he replied arrogantly.

"Then may I ask where you are going? I may be able to point you in a quicker direction," she said getting up and approaching him.

Thorin glared at her for a moment before he replied, "I am seeking the home of one called Baggins, at Bag End. But in the night all the blasted holes look alike."

"Bag End? I know where that is, here, come with me," she said walking off down the road. Thorin followed, not fearing a trick of some sort since these were just hobbits.

"Are you hungry? It's becoming late, and I have some bread," she offered, holding out a loaf of bread to him.

Thorin accepted it with thanks. He never would've admitted it, but he actually was quite hungry from traveling all day.

She led him through the hobbit village, and soon they came to a larger hill with windows all along one side of it.

In the light coming from these windows, Thorin was finally able to get a good look at this hobbit woman. She came up to about his shoulder, and had curly hair like most hobbits but was a deep auburn/red color. Her clothes were simple though, as if the sole purpose of them was to run around in; not nice 'seeing your grandparents' clothes.

She stopped by the gate. "Here you are," she said gesturing to the door. She then turned and walked back down the road.

"Wait!" Thorin called after her. "What's your name?"

"Daisy, Daisy Baggins," she grinned.

Once inside the hobbit hole, Thorin met the burglar Gandalf had found. He looked more like a grocer to Thorin, and Thorin stated it. When offered food by the grocer, Thorin had only a bowl of stew; the bread Daisy had given him had put a nice curb on his hunger.

Daisy Baggins. From the name alone he knew she had to be of some relation to the burglar/grocer. Thorin still studied him, and found the two did have some similar features. He would guess they were brother and sister, or at the least cousins.

After he ate they got down to business. The mission was explained to the 'burglar', who did not take the idea of possible death by dragon very well. Thorin expected about as much from such a hobbit.

Once that was all taken care of, the dwarves sang of their home, of Erebor. As they sung, Thorin noticed a hobbit standing by Gandalf, listening. It was the one who led him here, Daisy.

"And who might you be?" Kili asked her with one of his charming smiles. Thorin mentally rolled his eyes at Kili's flirting.

"This is Daisy Baggins, she lives here with her brother, Bilbo," Gandalf stood up and placed his hands on her shoulders. Daisy gave a small smile as a greeting.

"Oh my goodness, Daisy where were you!" Bilbo exclaimed entering the room and enfolding his sister in a worried hug.

"Out," she replied, squashed by Bilbo.

"Out where?" he asked, releasing her.

"In the Shire."

Bilbo shook his head, "Whatever am I going to do with you?"

"Sorry Bilbo that would be my fault. I asked her to be on the lookout to make sure all the dwarves made it here. Most of the hobbit holes look very similar after dark," Gandalf apologized.

"Unbelievable," Bilbo muttered, shaking his head and leaving the room.

"When did you even come in?" Thorin ask her. He hadn't heard her enter and was very curious.

"Right before you started singing," she answered in that quiet voice of hers.

"How come none of us noticed you?" Fili asked, he had the best view of the door and was certain no one had entered.

"I simply did not want anyone to see me."

Thorin considered this. From what he had seen, this Daisy looked to make a better burglar than her brother. Given the choice, he would sooner take her with them. But it was even later now and they had an early start ahead of them.

Daisy showed them each rooms and soon all were fast asleep.

Daisy woke early the next morning to make breakfast for the dwarves before they left. They were all very polite and thanked her and even help clean up. However there was no singing now.

Just before they left Thorin pulled Daisy aside. "Why don't you come with us, surely you could be a burglar just as well as if not better than your brother?"

"Yeah!" Ori, who was passing them piped up. "It would be nice to have you come with us!"

Daisy smiled. "Thank you, and I would come, but I cannot leave Bilbo like this. However if he does decide to come, then I will most certainly come along to. And even if he doesn't, then I will at least inform him of where I'm going."

"But why can't you just leave now with us, won't he know where you've gone?" Thorin pressed.

"Yes," Daisy sighed. "But he would follow after me, and would be cross and in a very foul temper. I'm not going to do that to him," she explained.

"Fine then, but see to it that you are not too late in coming and miss us altogether," Thorin growled.

After the dwarves left Daisy went and opened the curtains in Bilbo's room. The light would soon be streaming in and would wake him any minute.

Sure enough he woke, and then searched the whole house for any signs of dwarves. He was a little disappointed when he found none.

"They left not too long ago," Daisy informed him. "If you hurry, you can still catch up."

A smile lit up Bilbo's face as he dashed off to get ready. Only a couple minutes later Bilbo was running out the door, with Daisy close behind him.

Thorin felt himself becoming cross. Why was he so upset that Daisy hadn't showed yet? Maybe he was wrong to bet that she would come, none of the other dwarves thought so except Ori. But Ori didn't bet. He didn't place any bets on Bilbo though. Judging how protective of Daisy he was last night, he knew it was quite likely he would come as well. Thorin didn't think he wanted Bilbo coming.

"Wait! Wait for me!" came a voice from down the road they had come. A voice that sounded much like Bilbo's.

"I signed it!" he exclaimed, huffing from lack of breath. He must have run the whole way.

Daisy trotted up behind him, not even breathing hard.

Balin inspected the contract, and deemed it valid. "Very well then, give him a pony," Thorin ordered.

Ponies were brought up for Bilbo and Daisy. Bilbo made a bigger deal of it, but Daisy told him to get over it since they would be traveling like this for a while.

"Wait why are you here?" Bilbo asked her.

"Because someone has to take care of you Bilbo," she sighed.

Soon a bunch of little bags began flying.

"Um, Gandalf, what's going on?" Bilbo asked the wizard, who was riding next to him.

"They took bets on whether or not you would come, my dear Bilbo," Gandalf explained.

"Did you bet?" Bilbo asked.

At that moment one of the bags was thrown to Gandalf, who caught it with a grin directed to Bilbo. Bilbo also noticed that many bags were being thrown up to the front of the line, to Thorin.

"Gandalf, did Thorin bet I would come? He didn't seem to like me last night," Bilbo said, confused at this event.

"No, Thorin did not make any bet concerning you. Rather, he bet Daisy would come."

"Daisy? But why would he- Gandalf, does this have anything to do with her birthmark?" he asked in a low voice so only Gandalf could hear.

"Hmm, that is possible, but you'd have to ask her for more about it."

Bilbo looked around for Daisy, and found her behind him talking with a dwarf. It was the slow looking one, the only one who asked what he should do with his plate before the other dwarves started throwing them all around.

Bilbo would most definitely be asking her about it later.


	2. Trolls

The beginnings of their travels were uneventful. Bilbo became accustomed to riding a pony and the rest of the company became accustomed to him. Daisy, Thorin found, seemed to fit right in. Or at least she did whenever someone noticed her. Bilbo demanded almost constant attention to make sure he didn't hurt himself; Daisy however required none at all. Thorin wouldn't have known she was there if it wasn't for the 16 bedrolls he counted each night.

Thorin started keeping an eye on her during the day. He didn't think it was possible for her to remain unnoticeable as a hobbit woman among a bunch of dwarves. Most often he found her talking quietly with Gandalf, or Ori, who had taken it upon himself to look after her. Sometimes Fili and Kili would try flirting with her in their own dwarf fashion, but she would either not be baited or was oblivious.

She never rode beside her brother though, and that confused Thorin quite a bit. He felt it didn't concern him, at least not yet, so he let it be for the moment.

However, Thorin started noticing that Daisy intentionally avoiding Bilbo. She was very subtle about it, but that was the sort of thing he was trained to notice. As they traveled, Thorin allowed his pony to fall back besides Daisy's.

"Why do you never walk with your brother?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

Daisy looked up at him, "What's it to you if I don't spend every waking moment with my Bilbo? Besides not to be rude but that's really not any of your business," she replied in that soft voice of hers.

"It concerns members of my company, therefore it concerns me."

"Fine then," Daisy sighed looking up the column at Bilbo. "He wishes to ask me something that I will not wish to answer."

"And how can you possibly know that if you avoid him?" Thorin asked, realizing that he was speaking softly as well now.

"He fidgets, and stammers, and starts to say something but hushes up when someone else comes near. Normally he would just ask me, so I know it must be something that will upset me. And there are very few things that he would ask me about which would upset me."

"So you know what he will ask you?"

"I believe I do, I know what it will concern at least," she said with a small smile.

"Well, what is it about?"

"I'm sorry Thorin, but that is of a very personal nature, so I cannot answer that," she grinned up at him.

Thorin glared in return, and spurred his pony back to the front of the line.

Bilbo managed to corner Daisy that night. She sat a little farther away from the fire in the small cave they sheltered in and watched as Bomber made dinner. Bilbo came and sat next to her.

"So, uh, did you come because…"

"No," she interrupted him.

"You didn't even know what I was going to say!"

"Yes, you were going to ask if it was about my birthmark," she said quietly.

"Well, actually, I was going to ask about your birthmark," Bilbo said defeated.

Thorin noticed Bilbo go sit next to Daisy, and saw them talk. Daisy did not look happy at all, so it must be about whatever Bilbo had wanted to talk to her about. He did his best to listen to find out what the big deal was, but all he caught was the word 'birthmark'.

A strange cry came from near the mountains, making Bilbo start. "What was that?" he asked, clearly frightened.

"Orc," Fili said. "The mountains will be crawling with them. They attack silently, and in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep. There's always lots of blood."

Bilbo paled at this, and Fili smiled to himself, amused at the burglar.

"An orc attack is no laughing matter. The hobbit is right to fear them," Thorin scolded his foolish nephew. The foolish nephew apologized.

"Yes, after all, we can't all be as brave as you, Oakenshield," Balin said.

"Oakenshield?" Daisy questioned. She too had moved closer to the fire at the orc's cry.

"It's another name for Thorin. In battle before the mines of Moria, Thorin was fighting the pale orc Azog and lost his shield. In desperation he grabbed an oak branch that was near, and used it as a shield the rest of the battle. The dwarves won, but countless were killed," Balin explained.

Daisy paled as well, but Balin did not think it had to do with the orc cry. He also didn't think his tale was too gruesome; he purposely kept it light for her benefit. He would not ask her though, he knew she was a fairly quiet person and calling attention to her would probably embarrass her.

Thorin was also aware of Daisy's now pale features. She went sheet white when Balin said it was another name for him. Thorin knew she must've heard the name Oakenshield before, but why did it fill her with fear?

They continued to travel, and it rained. After several days of this everyone was cross with everyone, Daisy almost snapped at Ori, bit caught herself, Kili and Fili didn't even have the heart to tease and flirt with Daisy, who was still oblivious, and Thorin was cross at everyone as usual.

Finally it stopped, and they found an abandoned farmhouse to set up camp for the night. Gandalf suggested they push on and make for Rivendell, but Thorin would have nothing to do with the elves and refused. Gandalf then left to go do who knows what.

As night fell Bomber made stew per usual. Fili and Kili were looking after the ponies, so Bilbo was sent to give them their bowls.

Bilbo was gone a long time, and Daisy was starting to get worried. She knew the brothers liked to tease him a bit, but she always wondered when this teasing would go a bit too far.

"Trolls!" Kili shouted running back into the camp. Fili was right behind him.

"Where's Bilbo?" Daisy asked alarmed, springing up from where she was helping Bomber clean up.

"Oh we told him to go try to release the ponies," Fili said.

"Trolls are still a problem, come on everyone!" Thorin called.

Everyone grabbed their weapons and followed. Daisy didn't really have a weapon, just a little slingshot Ori had made for her. Still, it was better than nothing, and there was no way she would be staying behind when her brother was in danger.

Sure enough, Bilbo had gotten himself caught. Kili demanded that the trolls put him down, but they just threw Bilbo on top of him. The other dwarves then led a charge on the trolls, and they fought. Bilbo went back to trying to free the ponies, and Daisy did what she could to help. However the ropes were tied tightly in knots that were as big as their heads.

"Bilbo, that knife thing!" Daisy pointed out. Bilbo saw what she was pointing to. It was the same thing he had been trying to steal when he had been caught. Now it was unused. Bilbo grabbed it and cut the ropes, freeing the ponies.

The commotion from the ponies running away attracted the attention of one of the trolls, who spied an unarmed and unaware hobbit. The troll made a grab for Bilbo, but Daisy saw it first. As the troll reached for Bilbo, Daisy ran and pushed Bilbo out of the way.

The troll was surprised to see it had caught her instead, but knew it could still be used. Daisy grimaced as it squeezed her painfully. She was pretty sure she heard something crack.

"Put down yer arms! Or it loses its," one of the trolls yelled as it and another troll each held one of Daisy's arms.

Thorin scowled, but dug his sword into the ground anyway.

The trolls tied the most of the dwarves in sacks, and some on a giant spit over a giant fire. Daisy however, they left out of a bag as they inspected her.

"It looks most like the burglar-hobbit, and the burglar-hobbit looks a bit like the dwarves, but this one looks nothing like a dwarf!" one said, holding her upside down by a leg. It was now that Daisy was very grateful she had worn pants like Bilbo instead of keeping to a traditional hobbit woman's dress. She just had to worry about her shirt falling up on her.

She tried to keep it up, but she wasn't quick enough.

"Hey, what's those strange markings?" asked the one with the winey voice and the runny nose, pointing to her right side, the side hidden from the dwarves view.

"Oh that? That's um, my expiration date!" she called out loud enough for the dwarves and Bilbo to hear.

"What's that?" the one holding her gruffly asked, bringing her to his face.

"You don't know what an expiration date is? Why that's when any meat goes bad!" Bilbo exclaimed hopping up.

"Meat can go bad?" asked the third, scratching himself.

"Of course it can! The older it is the badder it is, it can make you very sick, even kill you!" Bilbo elaborated. "We all have one, I believe hers went up last month, and we're all older than she is, so it's a good bet we're all expired."

"I don't have an expiration date!" Kili exclaimed. He was silenced by a kick from Thorin. Or what was supposed to be a kick. It was really more of a sharp wiggle in Kili's direction. Kili and the other dwarves caught on.

"Actually I think I expired yesterday morning!" Kili exclaimed even louder. Then all the dwarves went on about how expired they were.

"Hush up!" yelled the troll holding Daisy. He had gone back to holding her around her middle, with only her head and feet showing. Daisy tried not to cry out; he was squeezing her very painfully. "They can't all be expired!" he protested. "I say we just eat them all raw right now before we get caught by the sun!"

Daisy thought she saw someone moving along a giant boulder that shielded the troll's camp, but it was hard to tell with the light glaring around it. Light! If only they could stall for a little bit longer, then surely Gandalf could do something, for she was quiet sure it was Gandalf she had seen; only one person she knew of wore a hat like that.

"Of course they can be! Can't you tell they're all ancient?" Daisy yelled to be heard. "Especially that one, beware of him; his beard is all white now, which means he's extremely deadly to eat!" One of the trolls had picked up Balin.

"Come on, we're not fools, hurry before the sun rises!"

"Dawn take you all for fools!" said a loud voice on top of the rock. Gandalf broke it in half, and sunlight streamed into the troll's camp.

The troll holding Daisy dropped her to the ground in surprise as it and the other two turned to stone.

Once solid, Gandalf and Daisy helped the dwarves out of the bags. Daisy was sore from being squeezed, poked, and prodded by trolls all night, but she seemed to be the worse off of all of them. But they were all safe.

"Hey Daisy, what were the markings you told the troll was an expiration date?" Ori asked innocently.

_**This turned out a little longer than expected, but I didn't have the heart to make it two chapters. Hopefully the next chapter will be up tomorrow or the day after, sorry about the cliffhanger. **_

_**Thanks for reading so far, and please send reviews, I love feedback! :) **_


	3. Rivendell

"Oh, it's just a birthmark really," Daisy said nervously pulling down on her shirt a little more.

"The troll said markings. What _is _your birthmark?" Thorin asked suspicious.

"I saw a bit of it when the troll swung her around, it looked like dwarvish letters!" Dori said.

"Really now, did you see what it said?" Thorin asked him.

"No, I didn't. It was too far and too small."

Thorin took a step toward Daisy. "May I see it? I could tell you what it says," he offered.

Daisy took a step back. "No thank you, I've had my shirt lifted up and fallen down enough for the moment," she replied, eyeing him warily.

"But…" Thorin protested.

Gandalf came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "If she doesn't want to show you her birthmark then let it be," Gandalf glared at Thorin. "The trolls would've needed a place to stay during the day; their cave must be nearby," he added to distract them from Daisy's dwarvish birthmark.

They found the cave; it smelled horribly, which surprised no one. They found a great many things there, including some elvish swords. Thorin and Gandalf each took one, and Gandalf found a small one and gave it to Bilbo. After looking a little longer, he found one very similar to it and gave it to Daisy. He had the feeling each would need a proper weapon before the journey was over.

"Are you alright?" Gandalf asked Daisy as he gave her the sword. She was sitting on a rock clutching her sides and breathing heavily.

"Yes, just a little sore; the troll had a tight grip," she answered with a small smile.

Gandalf didn't believe her for a minute. He would love to get her to Rivendell and have Elrond take a look to make sure everything really was ok.

Suddenly there was a commotion in the forest. It was the sound of something moving very fast. The Dwarves drew their weapons and readied themselves for a fight. Bilbo tried to. Daisy still sat there, not wanting to move just yet.

It turned out their fears were unfounded; it was just another wizard who needed to speak with Gandalf. Gandalf and Radagast went a little ways off so they could talk in private.

"Why didn't you make to defend yourself, I know Gandalf gave you that large knife," Thorin came and clapped Daisy on the back, shaking her small frame. Daisy could not contain a small yelp of pain.

"Are you hurt?" Thorin demanded before she could answer his first question.

"Yes, a little," she said through gritted teeth. "The troll had a tight grip."

"Then next time that should teach you to not get caught," Thorin growled as he stomped away.

"Thorin, wait," Balin called as the king stormed off. Thorin waited for him, scowling the whole time. "Thorin, she didn't get herself caught. The troll was going to grab Bilbo, and she pushed him out of the way. She saved him; I saw it all," Balin explained.

Thorin looked over at Daisy. "Is that true?" he asked her.

Daisy nodded in rely.

Then an orc riding a warg ran into their midst. It was promptly killed.

"Who did you tell about your quest?" Gandalf demanded of Thorin.

"No one!"

"Well, you're being hunted by orcs. The ponies will be dead by now, hurry we must run! Radagast, you get out of here too," Gandalf said.

"Let me lead them away; all of you can escape," he offered.

"Radagast, these are wargs, they'll outrun you!"

Radagast smiled, "And these are Roschabell rabbits, I'd like to see them try!"

That settled, Radagast led the orcs away on a merry chase. Gandalf led the through the mountain side, trying to stay away from the orc pack. But in open countryside you can stay out of sight for only so long. The orcs saw them, and stopped chasing Radagast.

The dwarves, two hobbits, and wizard made their final stand at an outcropping of rocks that dotted the landscape. Daisy looked around for the wizard, holding the sword in one hand and her sides with the other. Where did that wizard go off to?

He then poked his head above the rocks. "Everyone, over here!" he cried. Daisy was among the first with Bilbo, and was surprised by the sudden drop. She rolled to the ground in the cave under the rock, bruising her already troll-bruised sides.

After all the dwarves made it in, there was a great commotion above them, and a dead orc rolled into the little cave where they were taking shelter. Thorin went over and examined the arrow protruding from it, for it was not Kili's. "Elves!" he cursed.

"Are you alright lass?" Balin asked Daisy, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. She was still on the ground, waiting for the pain to subside some before moving.

"Yes, I'll be fine," she grunted.

Gandalf came over and stopped her from standing up. "Here let me take a look at you, you don't look so great," the wizard said.

He placed his hands gently on her ribs. Gandalf frowned at what he felt.

"What's wrong with the hobbit?" Thorin demanded.

"Some of her ribs are broken, how she managed to do all that running from the orcs is beyond me. But she shouldn't be moving much anymore," Gandalf said.

"Ok then, I'll carry her!" Kili enthusiastically volunteered, scooping her up roughly. Daisy could barely contain her cry of pain, and all the dwarves noticed.

"Thorin, we will need to take her to Rivendell. The elves can heal her there much faster than if she continues to travel in this condition," Gandalf said quietly to Thorin.

"I know. Lead us there, Gandalf."

Just then Thorin heard Daisy cry out again as Kili jostled her trying to get a better grip on her.

"Give her to me, Kili!" Thorin snapped at his nephew. "You do not know how to carry or even hold someone who's injured!"

Kili reluctantly handed her over.

"Why didn't you say you were hurt?" Thorin demanded looking down at her.

"I did not want to burden or worry anyone, least of all you," she replied softly.

"And why would I worry?"

"You worry about everyone here. You snap and yell and sometimes insult us but that's how you show concern for us."

"But what about you? I rarely ever yell, snap, or insult you," Thorin pointed out.

"That's because you never notice me, no one really does. Of the dwarves, Ori's the only one who is consistently aware of me, and Kili is whenever it suits him. But I've always gone unnoticed so I'm used to it by now," Daisy explained.

"Then I promise I will do a better job of not forgetting about you," Thorin said. "But for now, try to rest; it will be good for your body."

Daisy took his advice and nestled into Thorin's fur coat the best she could. It smelled like dwarf, but somehow she found that relaxing and was soon drifting off to sleep. Thorin felt a strange warmth in his chest watching the hobbit sleep against him. He knew what it meant, and any other time he would welcome it, but a dangerous journey was not the place to be falling in love. He also knew the main reason he took her from Kili was simply that he didn't want Kili holding her like that. Sure, it was painful to her, but if it hadn't been he would've had to think of another excuse to hold the slight hobbit woman in his arms.

Bilbo hovered near Thorin and kept looking over at Daisy to make sure she was ok. It got on the dwarf's nerves, but he knew Bilbo was only concerned for his sister. And so he didn't snap at the hobbit for crowding him and Daisy.

When they entered Rivendell, a party of elves was just returning from hunting down an orc pack. Thorin let Gandalf do the talking; he knew if he said anything he would likely just offend them and Daisy needed their help so bad that he couldn't risk offending them.

Elrond was much intrigued by the hobbit woman who had managed to run from orcs with broken ribs.

"I will heal her, but first I will need to see how bad it is," Elrond said.

"Thorin, let Elrond take her, she will be in good hands," Gandalf said to Thorin.

"_But still an elf's hands,"_ Thorin wanted to reply, but tactfully only glared at the elf as he stooped down to take her from Thorin.

Bilbo made to follow Elrond, but Gandalf held him back. "Relax, Master Baggins, when you next see her she will be in much better shape than she is now," Gandalf reassured him.

Thorin knew it was true, but still did not like letting Daisy out of his sight.

_**Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! The next should be up soon since it was originally going to be part of this one. Please review, I love feedback! **_____


	4. Waking

"How odd, that a hobbit should have the mark of Durin on her," Elrond said to Gandalf in Daisy's room as she slept.

"Yes, it is, but we cannot see all ends, and I would ask you to not say anything about it; he doesn't know yet," Gandalf replied.

"He doesn't know? I would've thought he did judging from the way he was acting around her."

"Yes, he has already begun to feel affection for her; that much is evident. However, I know Daisy would not approve of one of us mentioning anything of it to him before she was ready."

"As you wish, Gandalf. I hope she's strong though, dealing with dwarves is not an easy task," Elrond warned.

"Well, she had several ribs broken by a troll, and proceeded to run from orcs with us, all without complaint. If that's any indication of how strong she is, I think she'll do just fine," Gandalf smiled.

As Elrond and Gandalf exited the room, Bilbo jumped to his feet. "Can I go see her?" he questioned. He had been sitting outside the room ever since Elrond carried her in there.

"Yes, you may Bilbo, but she's still sleeping so don't wake her!" Gandalf said.

Bilbo ran in. He pulled up a chain beside her bed and peered at her sleeping face. Yes, she did look much better, as Gandalf said she would.

Daisy rolled over in her sleep, and gave a moan as she moved something that should've been kept still. Bilbo reached out and took her hand in his. She slept on.

Bilbo laid his head down on the bed next to Daisy, and before he knew it, he had joined her in sleep.

And that was how Gandalf found the two hobbits later when some of the dwarves were wondering where Bilbo had disappeared to; sitting in the chair with his head resting on his arm on the bed, holding hands with Daisy, who was turned toward him and smiled as she slept.

"But I don't like green foods!" Gandalf heard Ori protest as he rejoined the dwarves.

They had a table set up on a small balcony with an excellent view of the valley. Most of the dwarves didn't even notice as they were too busy eating. Ori happened to be bemoaning the fact that the majority of the food happened to be veggies and such, which he was not too fond of.

"So did you find the burglar?" Dwalin asked as Gandalf sat with them.

"Yes, and he is still with his sister, and I expect he will be with her should you need him," Gandalf said.

"We can see her?" Fili asked jumping to his feet, with Kili close behind him.

"You can wait until tomorrow when she wakes up, let her sleep for today!" Gandalf said.

They started to protest, but were silenced by glares from Gandalf and Thorin. They both sat back down; it wouldn't be an issue to wait for tomorrow.

Bilbo woke sometime in the night with a stiff neck. _"Well, that's what you get for sleeping in such a weird position,"_ he thought to himself as he stretched.

"Go get some proper sleep, burglar, there's a room for you right across the hall," a deep voice said out of the darkness. Bilbo jumped in surprise, but when his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw it was only Thorin.

"No, I'm watching over her," Bilbo said defiantly.

Daisy blinked her eyes open. "Bilbo, go get some real sleep. I'll be fine," she told him.

"Are you sure? I don't mind staying in here," Bilbo said.

"Yes Bilbo, the last thing we need is you bent all out of shape because you've been sleeping in weird positions. Go sleep properly in a bed!"

Bilbo left, although reluctantly, and Thorin took his place in the chair by the bed. He leaned back and sighed, he though the hobbit would never leave. Thorin looked over at her, and found her eyes on him, her giant, brown eyes.

"Hey," she said with a sleepy smile.

"Hey," Thorin replied uncertainly.

"Why are you in here?" she asked.

"We were wondering how you were," he answered.

"Mhhhh, you could've asked Gandalf or Bilbo, or even Elrond. I will be fully awake in a few hours, you could see then. But I'm pretty sure the elves drugged me to make me sleep, so I'm choosing to forget about those obvious facts and think that you being here is simply a kind gesture and you don't have some ulterior motive which you probably do," Daisy replied.

Thorin smiled. "Even when you're sleepy from being given some sleep drug you're still pretty sharp, Daisy Baggins. Would you believe I just wanted to see you?" he said placing a hand on her cheek.

"But why? I'm just a hobbit," she said, her eyelids getting heavy.

"You're not just a hobbit, at least not to me," Thorin said softly, he could tell she was falling back asleep.

It was the last thing Daisy thought of before she slipped back into pleasant dreams.

Daisy woke up the next morning wondering if she had dreamed the conversation with Thorin. She remembered it, but at the same time it seemed too unreal to be possible. She opened her eyes to find several dwarf faces peering over her anxiously, namely Fili and Kili, Balin, and Ori. But no Thorin.

"Are you alright? How do you feel? Do you need anything?" chorused from the dwarves leaning over her.

Thorin grabbed Fili and Kili and pulled them back. "Give her some space, if you get any closer you'll be falling on her!" Thorin said gruffly. It was true; the brothers had gotten quite close.

At this the other dwarves took a step back, not wanting to upset Thorin. Daisy sat up and looked around the room.

"All of you are here," she said surprised to see all 13 dwarves in her room, along with Bilbo sitting on the foot of the bed.

"Dwarves are very loyal, lass. You may be a hobbit, but you are still one of us," Balin explained.

If Bilbo's hobbit hole was crowded with 13 dwarves in it, then this room was cramped. Dwarves lined the walls and leaned against the bed, and some even lay on the floor. All nodded at Balin's statement, even if somewhat reluctantly.

The door opened with some difficulty, and a rather cross Elrond entered, muttering something about 'damn dwarvish loyalty'. Bombur had been leaning against the door but a suggestion of Thorin that they would hate to have elves coming in whenever they pleased. This obviously did not deter Elrond.

The dwarves made room for him, and he set some food down on the bedside table for her. Elrond took a look at her, and smiled since she was doing well.

"I would like for you to stay here resting in bed for a week; that is the earliest I feel comfortable releasing you. You will still have to be careful as you travel, but the worst will be behind you," he said.

Daisy looked at Thorin, asking if that was okay. "Well it looks like we are staying here a week," Thorin said, not too happy to be spending a week with elves.

_**Thanks for reading, as always, reviews are welcome **____** And in reply to those who were wondering, I have been dropping subtle hints as to the birthmark, although sometimes I feel they are quite obvious ;) **_


	5. Durin's Mark

Most of the time Bilbo kept Daisy company as she was confined to her bed. Since he was there all the time, Daisy sometimes had to kick him out so he could explore Rivendell like she knew he wanted. When she did this more of the dwarves came and stayed for a bit. Thorin, Fili and Kili, Ori, and Balin visited the most out of the thirteen, sometimes several times a day. She noticed that they came more often when Bilbo was gone, so she made it a point to kick him out more often. Plus Bilbo really was enjoying himself at Rivendell. He found the library and the gardens, and after that she knew she didn't have to worry about his spending all his time with her.

Of course Gandalf and Elrond came back each day to see how she was healing. When this happened they shut everyone out of the room, and so Bilbo would wait faithfully outside the door until he was allowed back in.

When Bilbo was waiting outside Daisy's door as Gandalf and Elrond healed her, he couldn't deny he was also eavesdropping. He heard Elrond say something about a mark of Durin, which he had never heard of before, but it sounded like a dwarf's name, and he was pretty sure he heard Balin mention the name before.

He was thinking about it was he wandered through one of the many gardens in Rivendell. This one could be seen from the balcony of Daisy's room, so he could sometimes call out a greeting to her when he passed by. As he walked lost in thought, he almost ran into Thorin.

"Watch where you're going, burglar," Thorin growled as Bilbo almost collided with him.

"Sorry, my bad, just thinking," he apologized looking up at Daisy's balcony.

"What about?" Thorin asked intrigued. He had a feeling it concerned Daisy, otherwise Bilbo probably wouldn't be looking up at that balcony.

"Do you know what the mark of Durin is?" Bilbo asked.

Thorin was surprised. How would a hobbit know of such an obscure, dwarvish legend? "Yes, I do know what it is, but the better question would be how you heard of it."

Bilbo blushed. "I heard Gandalf and Elrond talking about it. I was, uh, listening outside the door." If it was possible Bilbo blushed even deeper.

Thorin inwardly allowed himself a smile; it looked like maybe Bilbo would be good for something after all. He sighed. "Legend goes that Durin saw his sons making poor choices in partners. So before he died he gave his ruling line a blessing that the one most suited as a partner for the dwarf that ruled would have some kind of mark on them that indicated that dwarf, for sometimes a dwarf king would have more than one son. It is also said that once met, the dwarf of Durin's line would form a similar mark on their back. Sometimes this mark would form before they met, as to aid in the search for that partner," Thorin explained.

"So this mark helps you find your soul mate?" Bilbo asked.

"Yes," Thorin replied tensely.

"Aw, Uncle Thorin's just put out his hasn't shown up yet," Fili said, walking up with Kili. Even though they had the whole of Rivendell, the two brothers were still inseparable.

"Fili's just holding out hope that his will show up soon," Kili said, giving his brother a playful jab in the ribs.

"Is that even possible? I thought Thorin was to be king," Bilbo asked confused.

"It's possible, they are my closest relatives as my nephews, and should anything happen to me Fili would be up for the position. As sons of my sister they are still in the direct ruling line."

"Hey Uncle Thorin, we could check your back now for one if you like!" Kili offered.

The glare Kili received from Thorin was a clear 'no' on that idea. He looked around, trying to find a way to change the subject, and spotted Daisy standing on balcony watching them.

She had heard Bilbo and Thorin speaking, and her interest was piqued when Bilbo mentioned the mark of Durin, which she had also heard Gandalf and Elrond talking about in front of her, even though they thought she was asleep.

"What are you doing up? You're supposed to be lying down!" Thorin called up to her.

"I heard you and Bilbo, and I was bored!" she said back.

"All of us are here so that you can heal, so you will do as Elrond says and lay down!"

"You can't make me!" she said defiant.

"I will if I have to," Thorin threatened in a low voice, moving to stand right under her window.

Daisy raised her eyebrows at him in a challenge. "Now I'm going to come up there, and if you're not in bed as the elf said you should be then we'll have to do something about it," Thorin said. He then left and entered back into the building.

"Daisy, I'd suggest you get back into bed. Uncle Thorin is not used to anyone disobeying him and has a fairly low tolerance for anything of that sort. Kili and I found that out pretty fast when he started taking care of us," Fili said.

"Yeah, so watch out if you do, he won't be able to punish you like he did us, but who knows, he could always eat you!" Kili warned with a laugh.

Daisy smiled. "Then since I have no desire to be eaten today, I guess I'd better do as he says," she replied.

Daisy left the balcony and got back in bed. Not a moment after she finished arranging the covers how she liked them Thorin entered the open door. During the day she left it open to encourage visitors as she did get lonely and bored.

"So I see you did decide to get back in bed," he said.

"Yes, Kili said you'd eat me, and I didn't feel like getting eaten today," she explained.

Thorin rushed to the balcony to see if his nephew was still out there. But he and his brother had scattered, along with Bilbo.

Thorin came back inside and gave her a devilish grin, "Who's to say getting eaten by me would be a bad thing?"

Daisy laughed, and Thorin couldn't help himself and laughed with her. He sat down in the chair by her bed.

"So what have you dwarves been up to the past few days?" Daisy asked once she stopped laughing.

"Not too much, we are probably just as bored here as you. The other night Elrond looked at the map and discovered moon runes on it. Moon runes can only be seen when under the light of a moon of the same shape and season as when they were written, so there really hasn't been a chance to discover them earlier. But now we do know how to open the door to the mountain once we reach it," Thorin updated her.

"That's certainly good, and I have only one more day to have to stay like this. So forgive me for getting restless."

"You're forgiven," Thorin smiled.

"And let's hope she's healed," Elrond added, choosing that moment to enter. "You're going to have to leave now; it is time to take her bandage off and I don't think she will want you seeing."

Thorin looked to Daisy, who nodded for him to leave; she still didn't want him seeing her birthmark, even though she now knew what it was.

Thorin left, but not without a quick glare at Elrond.

_**Thanks to all who read this, and reviews are always welcome! **_____


	6. Mountains

Elrond removed the bandage around her middle that helped to keep her ribs in place. Her birthmark stood out even more now that the black and blue bruises were fading to a yellow brown color. Elrond said nothing about it, but Daisy knew he knew.

Daisy was allowed to walk around the next day, but was told to take it easy. She didn't wander much, but helped the dwarves get ready to leave early the next morning.

But she did get some time to herself, which she used to explore the gardens she had heard so much about. As she walked she saw Elrond approaching her, and she greeted him.

"Lord Elrond, thank you for healing me, I was about to go out of my mind having to be still for a week, I don't think I could stay like that for much longer," she said.

"It was nothing," he replied with a smile. "But I was wondering, are you aware of what your birthmark is?"

"Yes," she sighed. "I heard Thorin tell Bilbo about the mark of Durin yesterday. I know what it is."

"Why do you not tell him? It is something he should know, something they all should know," Elrond questioned her.

"I still barely know them, and would hate to cause any awkwardness or tension. I don't want this to change the way they see me. I do plan to tell them, but right now isn't the right time."

The next day they rose before the sun and left Rivendell. Gandalf was not with them yet, he still had a few things to take care of in the Hidden Valley. They were to wait for him in the mountains.

So they traveled up into the mountains. Once they were well up it started to rain, and then thunderstorm. Soon everyone was soaked, and even Daisy's thick, curly hair could not keep the back of her neck dry.

The more it rained, the more slippery the path became, and Bilbo almost fell off a couple times, much to the annoyance of Thorin, who was having a hard time keeping from snapping at the poor, drenched hobbit.

Then rocks started to fly, and Balin yelled out, "This is not a thunder storm, it's a thunder battle!"

Sure enough part of the mountain detached from its self and stood up; it was a rock giant. Another rock giant stood up, and the company realized that they were standing on the legs of one. The mountain under them separated and split the company.

Daisy and Bilbo were in the front group with Kili and several other dwarves. At one point the giant came very close to the mountain side and they were able to jump off. To the others it looked like they had been squashed by the giant.  
They ran over screaming their names, and were relieved to find everyone alright. Well, almost everyone.

"Where's the burglar?" Dwalin asked.

A frantic search found Bilbo hanging from the side of the mountain, for it was slippery and treacherous in the rain. They hauled him up, but not without some heart stopping moments, including when Thorin climbed down to help him.

"He's been lost ever since he stepped foot out his door, he never should've come!" Thorin said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "We must find shelter, and soon!"

Daisy put an arm around Bilbo to comfort him as they searched for a cave or something.

A cave was soon found, and the dwarves and two hobbits settled in for the night. Thorin put a watch though, for even though the cave was not deep, caves in the mountains are seldom unoccupied.

Bilbo waited for everyone to fall asleep before he got up and silently packed his bedroll. He had almost made it out of the cave when he was stopped by Bofur, who was on watch.

"Where are you going?" he asked surprised.

"Back to Rivendell. I don't belong here, never have. It's best I just leave."

"But you can't do that, you're one of us!" Bofur protested.

"That's just it, I'm not!"

"Bilbo, you're just homesick, I understand," Bofur said sympathetically.

"No you don't, you don't have a home, a place where you belong, you're used to wandering!" Bilbo said. Bofur's face fell and Bilbo realized that his words came out much different than he intended. "I'm sorry," he added.

Daisy heard them talking, and she too got up and tip toed over sleeping dwarves to stand by Bilbo. "If you're so set on going back, then I'm going with you," she said.

"No, Daisy, you have to stay. You belong here more than me," Bilbo said.

"It's not about whether or not I belong; it's that you're my brother, Bilbo. Yes, I don't want to leave, but I'm sticking with you. That's what family does."

"But what about your birthmark? Shouldn't you stay because of that?"

"Yes, I should, but that's just unfortunate. You're my brother, and I'm sticking with you the best I can," she said.

Thorin lay there in silence, wanting to jump up and say something. True, Bilbo was very out of place, but now that he was with them Thorin didn't really want him to go. He really didn't want Daisy to go, as he was now forming more clues and guesses as to what her birthmark was.

"Wait, what's that?" Bofur asked. Bilbo's sword was shining blue. Orcs or goblins were near.

Thorin heard gears click underneath them, now was the time to say something. "Wake up, everyone, goblins!" he shouted.

Then the floor opened up beneath them and they all fell down a chute, Bilbo and Daisy included. They landed in a kind of basket, where goblins came and corralled them along flimsy wooded paths built on the insides of the mountain. Bilbo bent down and managed to remain unnoticed, not so for Daisy. She was herded on with the dwarves, and didn't even notice Bilbo's absence.

The goblins took them to a landing, where the giant, fat goblin king sat.

"What brings dwarves armed into my kingdom!" he boomed.

All the dwarves and Daisy remained silent. The goblin king gave them a minute to respond, but still nothing.

"Fine then, if they won't talk, then we'll make them squawk!" he said. "Start with the youngest," he looked right at Daisy and the goblins pulled her out of the safety of the dwarves.


	7. Goblins

If Daisy denied feeling fear at that moment, she would have been lying. While trolls were more brutish, goblins knew the arts of torture, and would use it to get an answer. She desperately hoped one of her companions would say something, anything that would placate the goblins.

As they pulled her away from the dwarves, she felt hysteria build in her chest. She looked around wildly at her friends, and around at the goblins, trying to find any kind of way to fight back.

In the end it was Thorin who saved her. He pushed his was forward to stand in front of the goblin king. The goblin king held up his hand in an order for the goblins to release Daisy. Thorin stood protectively in front of her, shielding her from the giant goblin.

"Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, king under the Mountain. But wait, you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king, so that makes you a nobody. It's a rather depressing thought, really," the goblin king mocked him. "I know someone, an old enemy of yours, who would pay a pretty price for your head. Just the head, you see, no body attached."

"Impossible," Thorin gasped. "He died in battle long ago."

"Oh, but he didn't," the goblin king said ominously.

As the goblins brought up the gallows on which to hang the dwarves and hobbit, they sang about it. All about breaking their bones and, of course, hanging them. Daisy thought bitterly that it must all be part of their torture method. The goblin king was dancing around as he sang, and she would've found it a comical sight were she in any other circumstance and the goblin king not so grotesque.

All of a sudden there was a great flash of light followed by darkness.

"Take up arms, fight, FIGHT!" Gandalf called to the dwarves, for it was he.

Although slightly dazed, the dwarves managed to get up and find their own weapons. Now that they were armed, the goblins came at them.

"Follow me!" Gandalf shouted. All dwarves, Daisy included, followed. Gandalf led them through the goblins' bridges and paths, fighting the whole way. Daisy later remembered little of it, as to her it was more of a waking nightmare, the kind where no matter how fast you run, it's not fast enough, and everywhere is the face of some monster trying to kill you.

But in the moment Daisy saw everything with a strange clarity. She could focus on small details of each goblin, and slashed at them with her sword as best she could for never having used one before.

They finally came to the last bridge, and it was guarded with goblins ahead of them, and goblins behind. Then the goblin king climbed up from underneath the bridge and gave a challenged along the lines of 'what are you going to do now?'

Gandalf simply swiped at him with his sword. "Well, that'll do it," the goblin king said just before Gandalf dealt the killing stroke.

The bridge cracked under the weight of all the goblins plus the wizard, hobbit, and dwarves. They rode the bridge down, and some dwarves got a little stuck underneath.

"Ugh, could this get any worse?" one complained.

The dead body of the goblin king then fell on the broken bridge, eliciting groans and curses from the dwarves.

"Mister Gandalf, I don't think we can fight all of those!" another cried out as masses of goblins swarmed along the bottom of the cavern toward them.

"Only daylight can save us now, hurry!"

Gandalf raced along the bottom, followed by everyone once again. They made it out, and once safe Gandalf began counting the dwarves to make sure everyone had made it. Everyone was accounted for, except Bilbo.

"Wait, where's Bilbo?" he asked.

The dwarves looked around them, and talked among themselves to see who had seen him last. Daisy felt the dread settle in her stomach like a rock.

"I saw him slip away when we were first corralled," Nori said.

"He'll be long gone by now, I suspect that's the last we've seen of our burglar," Thorin said. "He's thought of nothing but his home since he came, we're better off without him. What surprises me is that you're not with him," he added to Daisy.

"Yes, he was going to leave, and yes I was going to go with him since he is my brother, but then we were all caught by the goblins. And if he doesn't turn up soon, then I'm going back to look for him," she replied.

"Then this company will be better off without the both of you, since you are so willing to leave it," Thorin retorted.

"Bilbo is my _brother_, Thorin. Do you not understand that? Our parents are dead, and we are all the other has. It's not that I want to leave, because I don't. I would love more than anything to stay with all of you. But Bilbo is my brother, and the only close family I have left, and if he's still in there stuck with goblins, then I will do all I can to get him out," Daisy said stubbornly.

"Thank you Daisy, but that won't be necessary," Bilbo said stepping out from behind a tree. He was soon enveloped in a giant hug as Daisy threw her arms around him.

"Why did you come back?" Thorin demanded of him.

"I wasn't going to, I was going to go back home. But you don't have a home, it was taken from you. And so I will help you get it back, if I can," he said detangling himself from Daisy's arms.

The dwarves were silent, unsure of what to say. They were saved from the awkwardness by the sound of the orc pack hunting them.

"Out of the frying pan," Gandalf sighed.

"And into the fire," Thorin growled.

The wargs chased them up into tall pine trees on the edge of a high cliff. Some stood guard at the bottoms of them while more filled the area. Last of all to join was a white warg, ridden by a pale white orc. Even though some of the dwarves and the hobbits had never seen him before, they knew this was Azog, the mortal enemy of Thorin.

"Kill the others, but that one is mine," he said in the orc language zeroing in on Thorin.

The wargs jumped at and pushed at all the trees the dwarves were in until they all had jumped to the last pine tree barely hanging onto the cliff, and even it was starting to lean. Then Gandalf, who knew of the wargs' fear of fire, grabbed a pinecone and lit it on fire with his staff and gave it to Kili to throw. He did this with more pinecones and the others lit even more pinecones using these.

Much of the forest around them was set on fire, but many of the wargs were driven away. The Azog on his white warg was one of them.

The pine tree fell until it was lined up with the ground, and the dwarves were hanging on for dear life, most of them slipping.

It was then that with the tree falling out from under them and the forest ablaze around them that Thorin pulled himself up and went to meet the pale orc.


	8. Azog

The phrase 'what on middle earth is Thorin doing?' ran through the minds of the dwarves and two hobbits with slight variations. Thorin had left the falling tree, and majestically with as much pride as he could muster strode to meet the pale orc in battle.

To say that Thorin was getting his ass handed to him on a silver platter would've been an understatement. At one point Azog's warg had picked up Thorin in his mouth and was shaking him around like a chew toy or piece of fresh meat. It was likely that due to the size ratio of dwarf to warg, Thorin was just that.

After Thorin was tossed away by the warg, he lay there trying to regain his breath, and preparing himself for the death that he knew must be near. He saw his sword lying nearby, but at that moment he didn't have the will to reach for it.

One of Azog's underlings ran forward, eager to finish off the dwarf for his master. It was a safety net for Azog, for if the dwarf still had a little bit of fight left in him it would be better for one of his many followers to suffer from it than him. The orc lined his axe up with Thorin's neck, and then raised it above his head. Thorin did not want to die, and made a last ditch effort to reach for his sword, but it was too far, and his fingers just barely brushed the hilt. Thorin watched the axe draw back, and knew he was about to die.

But then a small, hobbit shaped blur tackled the orc down. Thorin followed the movement and saw Bilbo wrestling with the orc. To Thorin's great relief, Bilbo killed the orc, driving his sword through its middle. Bilbo stood up and rushed to stand in front of Thorin to defend him, waving his sword wildly around as if he didn't know how to use one, which he didn't.

Azog walked over to where Thorin lay with Bilbo defending him. By now as many of the dwarves that could move had left the tree and were in battle with the other orcs. There would be no one else helping this poor hobbit and the fallen dwarf. Azog easily pushed Bilbo away; he could deal with the annoying creature later.

Azog raised a type of sword with which he would behead Thorin as he did his grandfather. But before he could bring it down Azog felt something hit the side of his head. At first he shook it off, but then he felt something else it him, this time on his arm that held the sword. It wasn't like whatever hit him in the head; this pierced his flesh and stuck. Azog roared in pain and looked to his arm and saw a knife sticking out of it. He grabbed it and pulled it out of his arm, then looked to where it had come from. He saw the little hobbit woman standing defiantly looking back at him, another knife in one hand and a smooth stone in the other.

Thorin had already looked over and seen her, and felt fear in his heart as Azog noticed her too. Thorin had already seen the pale orc kill those close to him, and he hated to even think about Azog hurting any of the members of his company. As Azog rushed toward Daisy, she ran to meet him. Thorin thought she was as brave as she was foolish.

The closer they got, Azog raised the mace he had picked up to crush her with. But at the last second Daisy sped up and slid under Azog's legs. Needless to say, the orc was very confused and stood there for a moment. Daisy kept running to pick up her discarded knife, and then ran to Thorin's side.

"How are you? Are you badly hurt?" she asked brushing away some hair that got into Thorin's face.

"I'll live," Thorin grunted.

Then the eagles came. These weren't just any eagles either. These were a Noble race, and were quite large. They grabbed orcs and wargs in their talons and dropped them over the edge of the cliff until all were dead or run away. Azog was among those that ran away. The dwarves they picked up and then dropped onto the back of another eagle below. None of the dwarves were expecting this, so each had a mini heart attack as they dropped and were slightly traumatized after the fact.

The eagles did this for all except for Thorin, who was carried in one's talons the entire journey to a large rock, lying eerily still.

Once they were all accounted for, Gandalf hurried to Thorin's side and tried to wake him. He wouldn't wake, so Gandalf said a little spell over him and then Thorin came to. He looked around frantically to make sure everyone was alright.

"We are all fine, Bilbo and Daisy too," Gandalf reassured him.

Thorin stood up and glared at Bilbo. Daisy stood next to him.

"Did I not say you would be a burden? That had no place among us and didn't belong?" Thorin said harshly to Bilbo.

Bilbo hung his head, and Daisy could see tears in the corner of his eyes.

"Never have I been so wrong," Thorin added, enveloping Bilbo in a giant hug. All the dwarves cheered and clapped; Thorin had finally accepted Bilbo, as they had done (or resigned themselves to) long ago.

"And you," he said turning to Daisy. "Don't you ever do something so brave and foolish like that ever again," he said hugging her much like he did Bilbo. But this hug lasted a bit longer than necessary, and he held her a bit tighter than was strictly required.

"I'll try," Daisy replied with a grin.

"I am grateful, don't mistake me, I owe you and Bilbo my life. But if either of you do anything stupid like challenging Azog, I will probably kill you if your foolishness doesn't," Thorin threatened, trying to get his point across.

"Alright," Daisy agreed with a laugh.

Gandalf looked on with a smile as well, pleased to see how things were turning out between Daisy and Thorin. The mark of Durin was not wasted on her.


	9. Braids

_**Since I've come to where the movie ended, I will be following the book as best I can remember it, please have patience if it's not exactly correct! **_

Gandalf went and had a chat with the king of the eagles, and the eagles agreed to fly the dwarves to a place called the Carrock. Flying this time was a little less traumatic for everyone, as they were able to climb onto the backs of the eagles themselves and were not dropped from the air. Fili and Kili were fascinated by flying and looked down at the lands below them. The others did not dare to peek over the edge of the eagle they rode.

Once they landed at the Carrock, Gandalf explained that he would be leaving them soon; he had pressing business away south. The dwarves begged him not to go, especially Bilbo, but he would not be swayed.

"But I do know somebody who lives in these parts. I will take you to him, and he may help you," Gandalf said.

As he led them to his house he told them about this somebody. His name was Beorn, and he was a skin changer, which meant sometimes he was a big black bear and other times he was a big, dark haired man. He took care of animals, but didn't eat them. He also tended bees and lived off their honey and cream produced from the animals.

"He is also quick to anger, so leave the talking to me. Wait here and have two of you come when I whistle, then two more every two minutes after that," Gandalf told them at the entrance to Beorn's lands and took Bilbo with him.

The dwarves waited, and soon Gandalf whistled and two dwarves hurried off. Thorin had sat down on a rock to rest and soon only he and Daisy were left.

"Are you about ready, Thorin?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied standing up, then grabbed Daisy's arm to steady himself.

Daisy gave him a look that said she was not quite sure, but didn't push it. However Thorin did keep a hand on her arm until they were within sight of the great wooden house. On the front porch sat Gandalf and a giant man who must be Beorn with all the dwarves sitting on the floor around them. They arrived just as Gandalf was telling Beorn about the goblins. Thorin and Daisy introduced themselves and sat down with the rest.

Once Gandalf was done, Beorn invited them in for supper, saying that if all beggars told such good tales then they might find him kinder.

They entered Beorn's home and were served a meal that they had not had the likes of since Rivendell. And although the meal was wonderful, the most curious thing about it was that they were served by various animals standing on their hind legs!

While they ate Beorn told them tale of Mirkwood and the mountains. The dwarves shuddered at these, knowing they would soon have to travel through the cursed wood. After they ate the mead they were drinking loosened their tongues and the dwarves told stories and sang songs too.

Then at a late hour Gandalf told them it was time to go to sleep, and to not forget that they must not leave Beorn's house during the night as Beorn had warned him.

"No need to worry about me!" Kili said drowsily. "I've got a nice hobbit lass to protect until morning," he said grabbing Daisy around the middle. He then attempted to lead her to one of the straw mattresses that were put out for them to sleep on so he could cuddle with her until dawn. He was promptly shoved off her by Bilbo with a glare. Kili found his way to a mattress either way.

Thorin looked on in approval at Bilbo's actions, but he still made sure to snag a mattress next to Daisy to make sure on of his nephews didn't get any ideas during the night, even though he knew the worst that would happen would be that Daisy would be locked in the arms of a snoring dwarf and be unable to escape. His nephews would never try anything more than that.

They woke the next morning to find breakfast laid out on the table along with strange waxy bars.

"That's soap," Gandalf explained. Beorn left it for you in case you wanted to bathe in the river behind his house. Bilbo needed no other encouragement and grabbed a bar as soon as he was done eating and dashed to the river.

The dwarves soon followed him, although not quite enthusiastic.

Daisy waited on the porch with Gandalf for all the dwarves to return before going herself. Bilbo was the first to return, darkly muttering something under his breath about dwarves.

The rest of the dwarves came back a few minutes later, Fili and Kili laughing at some joke. Ori explained to Daisy that the two brothers had dunked, splashed, and done several other things to Bilbo and the other dwarves in jest. Bilbo did not take this playing very well.

Thorin came back last of all, a good few minutes after all the others. He did not acknowledge Daisy or Gandalf sitting on the porch.

With all the dwarves back, Daisy was free to take her bath. The river was not too far behind the house, but far enough for privacy. Daisy took her time bathing; she hadn't had a chance to since Rivendell and felt quite dirty. After she cleaned her body she pulled her hair out of the bun she had kept it in most of the time and washed it too.

When she got back to Beorn's house, she saw most of the dwarves sitting around braiding each other's hair, some even the beards. Daisy sat down and watched them, trying to untangle her hair the best she could with her fingers. Doing this was a battle, since it had not been brushed anytime recently.

"Here, this might help," Gandalf said handing her a comb.

Daisy inspected it. "Where did you get this?" she asked in wonder. After all, how likely is it that a wizard is carrying around a comb for a hobbit woman to tend to her hair with?

"Beorn left it for you. He said 'the lady might find it useful.'"

Daisy took it with thanks, and began the task of combing through her hair. The comb made it easier, but it was still not that easy. At one point she was sure the comb would break from the force she was using to bring it through her knots, but the wood was sturdy.

"Here, let me help," Bilbo said taking the comb from her as she wrestled a few hard to reach knots in the back. The dwarves stopped what they were doing to watch; for some reason combing Daisy's hair enthralled them.

"Can I try it?" Kili asked hesitantly.

"Of course!" Daisy responded. Bilbo handed the comb over to Kili, who sat behind Daisy and began where Bilbo left off. Daisy was surprised; she though Kili wanted to use the comb himself.

"Hey, I want to try too!" Ori protested. Daisy smiled 'yes' to him, and soon all the dwarves that wanted to comb through Daisy's hair lined up for their turn. Gandalf smiled at the sight.

Once they were done, Daisy made to put it back up in a bun like she had had it.

"Oh no, don't do that! Hair as lovely as yours should be left down," Dori suggested.

"But when I do it gets in my way, it's very inconvenient," Daisy replied.

"We could braid it for her then!" Fili and Kili offered instantly. And a bit too eagerly.

"No, that's alright, there's no need for you to," Daisy said quickly. She didn't want to be rude to them, but they hadn't been the gentlest when combing her hair and would yank it all over the place.

The brothers started to protest, but they were silenced by their uncle.

"That's because I will do it," Thorin said.

Judging from his commanding tone, Daisy knew there was no arguing with him. He sat behind her like the other dwarves had done and ran his fingers through her curly hair. He chose small sections around her forehead and braided them back away from her face. Daisy relaxed at his touch; he didn't pull at her hair painfully as he nephews had done. It actually felt quite nice to have another braid her hair. When he was done none of her hair hung in her face.

"Thank you," Daisy turned around and smiled up at him.

Thorin felt his heart stop for a moment at her smile. He nodded briskly and walked outside cursing himself. If she had a mark of Durin as he was beginning to suspect, then the last thing he needed was to be falling in love with a girl who might not even be meant for him.

_**As another little note, tomorrow I go back to school from Christmas break, so I doubt I will be able to update everyday as I have been doing. Instead, I will try to update at least once a week around the weekends, maybe twice a week depending on how much work I get. But rest assured I have not forgotten about this story! **__** (reviews always welcome too **__**)**_


	10. Wounded

The next day they set out for the journey through Mirkwood. Beorn had given them ponies they could ride, but only to the edge of the forest. Once they reached Mirkwood they would have to send them back.

But it was of no matter to them at the moment, for most riding the ponies make their journey pass much quicker for the time being. For others it was torture. Bilbo was still trying to get the hang of a pony; he felt like he had forgotten everything he learned riding dear little Myrtle.

Bilbo wasn't the only one uncomfortable. Daisy had been watching Thorin at the front of the line. Fili and Kili had given her some winks as if they knew something when they saw how nice her braids were. That made her wonder if there was some kind of special meaning in dwarven braids. So she kept an eye on Thorin, since he had been acting a bit strange toward her. At times he was nice to her, and she almost thought he liked her. But then there were days like today and yesterday after he braided her hair where he barely spoke a word to her.

And so as she watched Thorin, she noticed he sat very stiffly in the saddle, not moving along with the pony's gait at all. Daisy already had suspicions that Thorin had been injured by the white warg, but she knew his pride would prevent him from telling anyone.

That night Thorin took the first watch as usual, even though Gandalf said they were still safe while in Beorn's land. Thorin said he would still watch for a while anyways. Daisy waited until all the other dwarves, plus Bilbo and Gandalf, had fallen asleep before approaching him.

He sat by the fire, staring out into the darkness lost in his thoughts. Balin had approached him earlier and told him that he needed to make up his mind about if he liked Daisy. It was not wise to be so drastic in his treatment of her; one moment gently braiding her hair then the next acting as if he didn't even know her.

And then the subject of his thoughts just came and sat down next to him, wonderful.

"What?" he growled at her.

"You're hurt, aren't you?" she asked back.

"No, go to sleep."

Daisy put a hand to his chest where there was still a tear in his armor from the warg's bite and pressed. Thorin couldn't help but hiss in pain. Daisy got up and went to her bag and came back with some bandages and a jar of something that Thorin thought looked suspicious.

"Take off your shirt," she said.

Thorin looked at her blankly. Why should he be taking off his shirt?

Daisy sighed in annoyance. "Let me see how bad it is, your wound. I can tend to it," she elaborated.

Thorin somewhat reluctantly took of his coat, and then his shirt.

Daisy's eyes widened at the wounds she saw across his chest. The amount of clothes he usually wore had worked to protect him from the warg's teeth, but he was still injured pretty badly. Daisy thought it was a wonder he could actually bear them. But then dwarves were so different from hobbits, and Thorin was a king.

"Where did you get those?" he asked, nodding to the supplies she brought over.

Daisy could feel the tips of her ears heat up, and was glad they were mostly covered by her hair. "I found them at Rivendell," she said in a small voice.

"Found?" Thorin found it unlikely that elves would so soon part with some of their healing techniques.

"Alright, fine, I nixed them," she huffed.

"And those knives you used on the orcs? Were those from Rivendell as well?"

"Don't be silly, those came from the trolls' hoard."

Thorin laughed, but he was a bit disappointed she didn't steal the weapons from the elves.

By the light of the fire Daisy wet one of the cloths she had brought and used it to wipe away the dried blood from around the wounds. Thorin stiffened at her touch, but relaxed as it was gentle. He studied her as she finished cleaning his wounds and then applied the salve. She was focused on her work, and the firelight cast an even redder glow on her braided hair. He also noticed how her hands lingered on him a moment longer than was strictly necessary. He was also sure he saw her blush, although it could've been the firelight. Thorin placed a hand on her cheek and watched as the red color deepened further; it was definitely a blush.

But why should she be blushing at seeing him shirtless?

After his wounds were cleaned and salve applied, Daisy took out pieces of bandages. "The salve will help the bandage stick, so there's no need to wrap it around your entire body," she explained, gently pressing one to the wound right over his stomach. Thorin flinched, but only a little. For the most part he managed to hide his pain by stoically glaring into the darkness over her shoulder.

Thorin looked down at himself and admired her handiwork. It was quite neat the way the bandages stuck on him but did not need to be wrapped around. He stretched his arms and twisted around to test the bandages. They let him move freely and stayed on in ways traditional bandages didn't. He did this a bit over the top as he could see Daisy had been admiring his muscled figure.

Daisy stared at the fire as he did this, but watched out of the corner of her eye. This was how she noticed something on his back, something that looked a lot like a tattoo.

"Here, let me see your back. I want to make sure you're not hurt there too," she said quickly.

Thorin was quite sure he had no injury there, but obliged her anyway.

As Thorin knew, there was no wound there; Daisy just wanted a better look at the tattoo she had caught a glimpse of.

It was on the small of his back along his spine. It was in dwarvish runes, much like Daisy's, but was only five characters long. Daisy didn't know dwarvish, but recognized the first four since those runes also appeared in her mark. They were D, A, I, and S. She knew what letters these marks stood for since Gandalf had translated her mark all those years ago. It didn't take much to guess that the last one would stand for a Y.

"Nothing here, you're good," she said a little breathless.

"Thank you," Thorin said, enfolding her in a hug.

_Now would be the perfect time to tell him_, Daisy though as he held her. But something else held her back. No, it would be better to wait, maybe even until after this business with the dragon.

Thorin released her and cupped her face in his hand. "Daisy…" he started to say, but one of the dwarves coughed, mumbled, and rolled over in his sleep, causing both of them to jump.

"I'd better go get some sleep," Daisy stammered out, standing up.

Thorin mentally cursed as he watched her go; it would be unlikely they would have a moment alone again anytime soon.

_**Sorry this has taken so long, but I hope it was all you wanted and more! As before reviews are always welcome **___


	11. Mirkwood

Although Gandalf appeared to be asleep, he watched the two from under his hat. He was heartened to see the two getting along so well, and from his position he could see the little mark on Thorin's back. Gandalf wondered how long it would take for one of the other dwarves to notice. He knew Daisy would tell him in her own time, but it if one of the others saw it then it would not stay secret long. He just hoped that however it ended, it ended well.

They traveled several more days until they were on the edge of Mirkwood where Gandalf left them. They begged him to stay, but his mind could not be changed; he had pressing business with the rest of the white council down south about the necromancer.

"I'm leaving Bilbo with you and Daisy as well. They will be of more help than any of you, including them, realize," Gandalf said with a twinkle in his eye.

Gandalf returned to Beorn's with his horse, and the dwarves plus two hobbits entered the forest.

The path into the forest stared at them like a gaping black hole. Having lost the wizard, they had no choice but to enter. For the first day there would be an occasional break in the trees and some light filtered through to them, but this soon stopped. During the day the light was dim and grey. At night it was so dark that Bilbo couldn't even see his hand when he waved it right in front of his face. The only light came from the eyes that stared out at them from the darkness.

Daisy was the first to notice them. She had been sitting by the fire when she saw a pair of red eyes staring back at her.

"Ori, do you see that?" she asked the dwarf at her side, pointing to where the eyes were.

"See what?" he asked. The eyes had disappeared.

She saw them again once it was a little darker, but this time there were three pairs. Daisy was standing next to Kili and pointed it out to him, but once again they disappeared when the dwarf looked for them.

"Are you ok?" he asked her. "You asked Ori about them too."

"Yes! I really have seen them!" she insisted.

Fili was skeptical; it seemed odd that she was the only one seeing these eyes.

Daisy sat back down scowling. Bilbo sat down beside her. "I've seen them too," he said helpfully.

"So why haven't you said anything?" she stressed.

Bilbo shrugged. "You had already mentioned it, and whatever the eyes belong to haven't done anything to attack us yet, so I thought I would give it time."

Daisy glared into the fire, but was still glad she wasn't crazy.

It grew later, and they all sat down around the fire. Eyes peered out at them from everywhere.

Kili and Ori sat up, straight and still, clearly on edge from the eyes.

"Believe me now?" Daisy asked grimly.

Both dwarves nodded their heads with vigor, mentally vowing to never doubt Daisy again.

Everyone slept close to the fire and to each other as well for there was safety in numbers, especially when a large part of the number was dwarves. Daisy had gone to sleep next to Bilbo, but woke early the next morning to find she was caught between Thorin and Kili. Bilbo was wedged between Kili and Fili.

Daisy tried to sit up, but in his sleep Thorin's arm shot out anchoring her back down and pinning her to his side.

Daisy didn't know what to do, so she just lay there. After a minute she realized she was finally warm. Due to the lack of sunlight, it was quite chill in the forest and Daisy had been slightly cold. Now that she was held close to the large dwarf, she realized just how cold she had been. Finally warm, she drifted back to sleep.

Thorin woke sometime a little after that with a pleasant weight in his arms. As he slowly came to, he was embarrassed to find it was Daisy, but was surprised to find it felt _right_. He didn't know how she got there, but knew it must have been something he had done since she was firmly anchored to his side. Thorin slowly withdrew his arm, and then sat up as to not disturb her. Having successfully avoided waking the hobbit woman, he stood up and built up the fire for breakfast.

Traveling through Mirkwood the days blended together with the nights. It was hard to tell how long they traveled, but it felt like weeks although it was probably only days.

They came to a river, which they had been warned from entering. Luckily Bilbo could just barely make out a boat tied on the other side. Once it was roped and pulled over to them, the dwarves crossed several at a time. Since Thorin was a king, he made sure everyone crossed safely before him. Bombur was the only exception, though.

Being the heaviest, Bombur was in the last group to cross with only one other dwarf. However, just as Bombur was climbing out of the boat, a white hart sprang out of the woods and leapt over them, startling everyone. Bombur in mid stride missed the step onto land and fell into the river. He was quickly pulled out by the other dwarves, but Bombur was fast asleep, just as they had been warned.

The dwarves grumbled to themselves as they split Bombur's packs up among them and decided who would carry him first after they tried and tried to wake him up.

The food was already running low, so the packs were light, but that also meant they must hurry through Mirkwood.

It was days later before Bombur woke up, and by then all the food had run out. Bombur told them of all the wonderful dreams he was having, of feasts where even he couldn't eat all the food at the largest of tables.

"Then just go back to your dreaming!" they snapped at him. They were all simply very hungry so their bad behavior must be excused in this instance.

"Maybe I will!" Bombur snapped back, just as hungry as they were.

After even more travel, all of them were at their wits end. They saw lights through the trees, and in a desperate fit they made a mad dash for it, for it was the wood elves.

Thorin hated them with a passion, but he had to sacrifice his pride for the sake of his company. Already his dwarves were looking thinner than dwarves should, and he was quite sure Bilbo and Daisy were much thinner than was normal for hobbits. Bilbo no longer had the slight belly he started out with which had disappeared during their time in Mirkwood. Daisy, already slender to begin with, was fast becoming skin and bones. Ever since the first night in Mirkwood when he woke to finding her in his arms, he placed his bed roll next to hers each night. Somehow he always woke to find his arm around her and a contented smile on her face, a face that was becoming thinner as the days passed.

And so with these thoughts Thorin approached the feasting elves. But as soon as he and his fellow dwarves entered the ring of lights, the lights went out and they were plunged into darkness.

They somehow managed to find each other in the dark, but it was not easy with fifteen people shouting the names of fourteen other people at the same time.

They saw the elves lights again and once again made for them. This time they were knocked asleep when the lights went out.

Daisy dreamed of a giant feast as she slept, but kept being disturbed by something pulling at her. Finally she woke up. Her first thought was that it was night again, as she could not see anything. Then she realized it was because she could not open her eyes.

Daisy forced herself not to panic; she knew it would not help her at all. She wiggled around a bit and discovered she was wrapped tightly in something sticky. She wiggled around a bit more violently. She felt something give, and knew she must be suspended in whatever was binding her. Then there was a slight plucking at whatever was holding her, like something was walking on the rope that she hung from.

"Thisss one sseemsss to be alert," some creature hissed.

Daisy froze in terror. Nothing she had encountered in Middlearth talked like that, and her imagination ran wild with guesses about what could make speech like that.

She felt a sharp prick in her back, and she found herself falling into another, less pleasant sleep.

_**Quick note to A Fan of Tolkien: I am aware some of my dialogue is not exactly from the movie, forgive my imperfect memory when I wrote that. I am also aware that according to Tolkien Azog was really killed by Dain, and that it is Azog's son who leads the orcs in the battle of five armies if I remember correctly. I was intrigued after the movie so I did research it. Any differences between this story and the book are due to the fact that I am going off my memory of the book and that I am following the general storyline, not each and every little detail. But thank you for your concern; it's nice to see there are people out there serious about Tolkien's works. **_____

_**And to everyone who reads this story, thank you for reading and for your support **_____


	12. Elves

Daisy woke again to someone ripping off whatever was wrapped around her, and they were having a hard time with it. She opened her eyes; her face now cleared, and in the dim light saw it was Kili.

"What happened?" she asked thickly. She felt as if someone had drugged her.

"Spiders," he replied seriously. "Bilbo's leading them off now. We are not well off, but you seem to be hit the worst, so over all we're too bad."

Daisy sat up and felt her head spin, but helped Kili get the rest of the webbing off her. Thorin was glaring at them, but was silent.

Daisy stood wobbly, trying to shake off the effects of the spider's venom.

Bilbo came running back. "We must hurry, I'm sure they will come back soon!" he panted.

Daisy took a few steps forward to be closer to the group, however this made her head swim horribly and her stomach churn uneasily. She took a few more steps out of the group to be sick in the bushes, or what passed as bushes.

Kili followed her over to make sure she was ok. Fili appeared at her other elbow.

"How are you feeling? Will you be ok?" he asked concerned, placing a hand on her arm. "You look pale."

Daisy took a deep breath and clutched her sides. "I'll be fine, just spider poison," she gasped out.

Thorin stood over behind them. "Will you be able to run?" he asked gruffly.

"Yes," Daisy stood up defiantly facing Thorin. He had been acting strange around her the past several weeks, sometimes ignoring her and sometimes being almost nice.

"Great, now we _really_ need to go!" Bilbo stressed.

Daisy started running with the dwarves, but almost immediately had to stop and hold her head. Then she felt herself thrown over someone's back.

"Put your arms around my neck and hold on," Thorin instructed. Daisy obeyed. Riding on his back was not much better than running, but it was an improvement. She held on tight to Thorin, happy to be this close to him and trying not to puke into his hair. It would be a shame to ruin it. But somehow she had the feeling that if someone could still look majestic with puke in their hair, it was Thorin.

They ran into another group of elves, and were once again struck asleep by a flash of light. Since Thorin and Daisy were the first to run into them, they were hit the worst and remained asleep longer than the others. So when the others woke up and continued on, Thorin and Daisy were left behind.

Thorin woke before Daisy did. He was confused as to why something was clinging to his back, but then he remembered and pulled the hobbit woman around in front of him.

"Daisy, wake up," he shook her gently. She gave no response. He shook her again and she gave a little moan this time, but still didn't wake. Her body began to shake, although he knew she wasn't cold. In fact, she was burning with fever. Thorin fought the urge to panic; it must have been the spider's venom.

"Daisy, come on, wake up!" he shouted, getting desperate. He hadn't even noticed everyone was gone.

She still did not wake, but leaned toward him and his warmth. He took her in his arms and yelled in frustration.

This was how the elves found them. Knowing Daisy needed their help, Thorin didn't fight them when they stood him up and marched him to the elf king's hall.

Once they passed the elf king's gates, Daisy woke up.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"We've been captured by elves, but I'm sure they will heal you of the spider's poison," Thorin answered her quietly.

Daisy nodded. "I can walk; you don't have to carry me," she said.

"There's no need, I have no problem carrying you."

"Thorin, please put me down," she said.

Thorin's heart sank; she couldn't wait to get away from him. He had tried to hide his feelings for her, but in the end he had only pushed her away. With a sigh he set her down.

The lead elf stopped walking and turned to look at them, surprise on his fair features.

"Amazing," he whispered. "One of our kind would be more strongly affected by the spiders' venom for the amount of time you have. What race are you, lady?"

"I'm a hobbit," she said proudly, lifting her head and holding onto Thorin for support.

When they were taken before the king, he was also impressed with the hobbit, having never seen one before.

After he finished angrily interrogating Thorin about why he attacked his elves and getting no clear answer in response, other than 'we were starving', he turned his attention to Daisy. Talking with Thorin only irritated him further, and it wouldn't do to strangle his captive, especially where there was a lady present.

"One of my people said you were a hobbit, what exactly is a hobbit?" he asked in the most charming voice he could. He knew dwarves were incredibly possessive, and from the way he had seen the dwarf king look at and treat the hobbit woman, he guessed he was sweet on her. At least he could annoy the dwarf this way.

"A hobbit is exactly what I am," she replied. The poison had taken an even greater toll on her, but she refused to burden Thorin with having to carry her. The elf king had also not been nice to Thorin, and she was trying her best not to be sick on his floors. Needless to say, Daisy was not in the best condition to be speaking with the elf king.

Daisy tightened her hold on Thorin's arm as the room spun around her. She tried closing her eyes, but that only made it worse.

The elf king noticed and called out something in elvish. An elf attendant rushed over to the dwarf and the hobbit.

"Let me take her, we can heal her body of the spiders' sting," he said. Thorin grudgingly let the elf take her.

As the elf swooped her up in his arms, Daisy knew she couldn't hold it in any longer. She was already feeling very dizzy, and feeling sick from that. The elf picking her up just pushed her over the edge. Her stomach protested the sudden movement by emptying itself all over the elf who had kindly picked her up.

The elf and the elf king were somewhat shocked, but the elf just took her out of the room as planned. The elf king was concerned. If she lived, it would be nice to keep her around; she would be an interesting study.

Thorin allowed himself a grim smile, proud in a way that it was the elf she had been sick on.

Once Daisy was safely away, the king glared down at the dwarf.

"Guards, take him to the dungeon!" he ordered. If he didn't get the dwarf out of his sight, he would be strongly tempted to do harm to him. It would also get him out of the way and give him and the other elves to be curious about the hobbit away from Thorin's protective glare.

_**Thanks to all who read, as a heads up, some fluff may be ahead, plus Thurandil (idk if that's how it's spelt) being curious about Daisy! **_

_**As always, reviews welcome **___


	13. Prisoner

Daisy vaguely remembered being sick on the elf who carried her away (she had a feeling that Thorin would be proud). After that, she remembered nothing. Then she woke up in a well lit room on a nice soft bed. The elf by her bedside got up and left at her awakening. This gave her time to look around the room.

The entire room was made of rock, and reminded her of a cave. But it seemed too well lit and nice to be a cave. It was a small room, with nothing but the bed she was in pushed against one wall with a table next to it and a chair.

Daisy sat up. She felt much better, although still a little dizzy. The elves medicine had worked wonders.

The elf returned with another elf. Daisy tried to figure out why he looked familiar; her memory was jogged by the crown of berries and twigs on his head. This must be the elf king she had Thorin had met in the great hall.

He sat down in the chair by her bed and gazed at her curiously.

"I am Thranduil, king of the elves," he introduced himself. "What is your name?"

"I am Daisy Baggins."

"You are a hobbit, are you not? My people and I have never met any hobbits before. What is it like where you live?" It was Thranduil's turn to be curious. Daisy was no bigger than an elf child, yet she had the appearance of maturity. He would have to ask how they aged as well.

"Yes, I'm a hobbit. We live in the countryside, in holes in the ground. We keep to ourselves, so I don't doubt you've never seen a hobbit before," she answered.

"How tall do you get? For us you have the height of a child. And how do hobbits age?"

"We are four feet at the tallest, usually a tad shorter than dwarves. And we age with each passing day." Daisy noticed the slight narrowing of Thranduil's eyes at the mention of dwarves, and had a strong suspicion that Thorin was locked up somewhere.

However the look on Thranduil's face swiftly passed, and she had a captive audience once more. He asked her more questions about hobbits, and seeing as he didn't try to get information from her about Thorin or any of the others (she didn't even know if he knew where any of the others were, and if he didn't she certainly wasn't going to be the one to give him any clues). So Daisy talked freely of her land, staying away from any subject that might lead to the dwarves and their quest.

Thranduil was amused by this small woman. Her size made it hard to take her seriously, but and manner was that of an adult, which he learned she was according to her race.

Thranduil noticed her eyes beginning to droop. "I will leave you now to rest, Miss Daisy. Recovery from the spiders' venom is no quick thing. But rest assured, if there is anything you need, you only have to ask," he informed her, and then left. Daisy fell back asleep soon after the elf king departed.

She woke again to find another elf staring out her. She tried to be as open minded as possible, but the elves were starting to get on her nerves with all this staring. She was _not_ just some doll.

When the elf saw she was awake he apologized. "I do not mean to stare, but as I am sure you have heard, we have never seen a hobbit before. If there is anything you need or would like, I will do my best to assist you." The elf stumbled over his words, embarrassed to be caught staring.

"What is your name?" she asked him, attempting to put him at ease.

"Legolas," he replied proudly.

"Well Legolas, what is it like living here?" she asked. She was just as interested in them as they were in her.

Legolas was more than happy to oblige. In this way they swapped stories and fast became friends. Since Legolas was prince, it was hard for him to be genuinely close to anyone because everyone was just trying to please his father. And the only friend Daisy had was most likely locked in a cell. She knew that had Thorin been free, he never would've left her side.

But even with the company of Legolas, after another day Daisy became restless. Legolas noticed this, and took her around the halls, giving her a tour. All the halls were made of stone and lit by torches on the walls; Legolas explained that the whole place was network of caves.

"Legolas, do you know where my friend is? I would really like to see him," she said as he led her back to the room she was using. Caves reminded her of dwarves, and dwarves of Thorin.

Legolas hesitated, but then he had never seen a dwarf before either and was understandably curious.

"This way, follow me."

Thorin sat in his cell deep below the earth. It actually wasn't that deep for him; he had traveled deeper countless times. But for elves this was quite far down. He glared at the wall when he was alone, and where an elf passed or came down, he switched his glaring to them.

While he was alone he tried thinking on the bright side- he had food, and Daisy would be healing, but also he was aware the rest of his company was most likely still in the forest, lost and starving. This did nothing to help his mood.

"Thorin?" A familiar voice broke the silence. A familiar woman's voice. It was Daisy.

Thorin rushed to the bars of the cell and peered out. The hobbit woman was standing there. There was also an elf behind her, staring at him.

He turned his attention back to Daisy. "You are healed?" he asked, reaching a hand through the bars and cupping her face.

Daisy smiled. "Yes, I am. How are you?"

Thorin shrugged, not wanting to say anything in front of the elf.

They talked a little more, only small talk though; the elf was still the enemy.

"Daisy, we must go now, I do not believe you are supposed to be down here," the elf said all too soon for Thorin. He may not be able to have an actual conversation with Daisy, but it was still nice to have her near.

She gave him a hug as best she could through the bars. "I'll find a way to get you out, I promise," she whispered quickly into his ear.

"Don't worry, I'll try to come back!" she called as she left.

Thorin was once more left alone.

Several nights later in her room Daisy was woken by someone shaking her. "Daisy, wake up! It's me, Bilbo," her brother whispered to her.

Daisy shot up. "What are you doing here? How did you get in?"

"The rest were caught, the elves missed me and I followed them in. I've found Thorin, he was the one who told me how to find you," Bilbo answered.

"How is he?" Daisy had been unable to see him again. "How is everyone else?"

"Everyone's fine, worried about you and Thorin. I've since told them the two of you are here and fine. Thorin's alright as well, worried about you too. I think it's really because he likes you though. He's the one your mark indicates, isn't it?"

Daisy blushed. "Yes, he is. But I don't want to tell him yet, it's not the right time."

Bilbo climbed up onto the bed beside her and put an arm around her. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"Even though I'm treated fair here, I still would rather be in the cell with him. Pathetic isn't it, what love does to us," she said bitterly.

"So why don't you find a way to stay in his cell with him? All you would have to do is ask, I'm sure," Bilbo suggested.

"But I promised I'd help find a way out, and I can't exactly do that from a cell."

"Leave that to me, Daisy. I'm already working on it. The two of you have hardly had any time to spend privately to learn about each other. You should be with him," Bilbo said.

"Really?" she said.

"Yes, of course."

Daisy threw her arms around her brother. The next day she would find a way to share a cell with Thorin.

"Daisy, are you alright?" Legolas asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Daisy had only a moment to be glad; the plan was working.

"It's just; I hate being treated special while Thorin is locked up. I'd rather be with him," she sighed. There was no reason to delay it any longer.

Legolas looked troubled. He could see the distress on her face, and sadness in her limbs. He would speak to his father about it.

"But why would you want to stay with him? He's a dwarf!" Thranduil fumed.

"And he's also my friend! I would take loyalty to my friends over comfort any day!" Daisy replied in kind.

"But we healed you! We saved your life!"

"And I thank you for that! I would just rather stay with my friend!"

"Fine then!" At that Thranduil stormed off. He could tell the hobbit woman was as stubborn as a dwarf; no amount of yelling would change her mind.

Thorin was resting when they brought her. He woke with a start to hear the door of his cell being opened, and had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming when Daisy walked in. They door was locked behind her.

She took a cautious seat on the edge of his bed, giving him a tentative smile.

"What are you doing in here?"

"I guess I managed to piss them off enough," she smirked. "And I would rather be down here with you than up there with them. Plus Bilbo said he was working on a way to get us out," she replied.

Thorin pulled Daisy in for a giant hug. "Your company shall be very welcome; I was just about to go mad in solitude," he whispered into her hair.

Daisy wiggled her arms out so she could wrap them around the dwarf king in return. "Well now you don't have to worry about that, for I will always be here."

Bilbo checked up on them awhile later, wearing his ring that made him invisible. They were talking lightly, and they both looked content. Pleased, Bilbo decided he would give them some privacy and come back later.


	14. Escape

Daisy lost track of how long they were kept by the elves; after the first two weeks all the days began to blend together. But Bilbo visited them often and updated them on the conditions of the other dwarves. Everyone was fed and taken care of, however they were unable to leave.

This irked Thorin to no end. He was still a king, for goodness sake! Most days he paced the cell they were in and muttered to himself. He was truly thankful for Daisy's company; more than once her calm hand on his shoulder brought him back from his dark moods.

"Thorin, what's wrong?" Daisy finally asked after many days of seeing him fall dejected like this. "I know I've never asked before, but why does this keep happening?"

Thorin was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Daisy had come and sat next to him, taking his hand in hers. He did not want to burden her with his problems, so he brushed it off.

"It is nothing for you to worry about, Daisy," he told her gruffly.

Daisy gave him a hard stare. "The way you're acting has me worried. Is it really so hard to tell me?"

Thorin sighed and turned his attention to the small hand that held his. "It is my fault we are here, and there is nothing I can do to get us out, short of telling Thranduil what our quest was. If I cannot lead twelve dwarves and two hobbits safely to the lonely mountain, how are they going to be able to follow me as king if we even get there?"

Daisy placed her hand not held captive by the king on his cheek and turned his head to look at her. "Thorin, none of this was your fault, and no one doubts your leadership abilities. All of the dwarves look up to you, and you have yet to lead them astray. Think about it- yes we may be held prisoner, but we are fed, which wouldn't have happened had you not went to the elves. And no one had died, though we have Gandalf to thank for that. You also have an air about you that commands respect. You were born a leader Thorin, and a brief stay in the elf king's dungeons won't change that."

Thorin gave her a small smile as well; barely an upturning of the corners of his mouth, but it was still a smile. He placed his hand on her cheek as well. "Daisy, I have no idea what I'd do without you here with me," he said softly.

Thorin stared into her eyes, and leaned in a little closer. Daisy felt her heart race; she was sure he was about to kiss her. Daisy mentally panicked. She had never kissed anyone before, and she didn't want to give away that he was the subject of her mark. Thorin rested his forehead on Daisy's, eyes closed.

A small cough could be heard from the hallway. Both Thorin and Daisy jumped near out of their skins and away from each other.

"Bilbo, is that you?" Daisy whispered relieved. Bilbo had taken to wearing the magic ring he found all the time due to the danger of the elves spotting him.

A moment passed and suddenly Bilbo stood where there was empty hallway before. "Yes, it is me," he whispered back. Although the light was dim, Daisy could tell Bilbo was blushing from his cheeks to the tip of his ears hidden by his curly hair.

"What do you want?" Thorin growled at him. He had been trying to have a moment with Daisy, and he hated being interrupted. But Thorin had heard the relief in Daisy's voice when Bilbo had appeared. She must not care for his affection, and he would not be the one she was destined for. This knowledge did nothing to improve his mood as well.

"I know how we can escape, but it must be done tonight!" Bilbo stammered. The anger of Thorin was a terrible thing.

"Well, how will we do it?"

"There is another way out. Barrels are dropped down a door in the cellar into the river to float down," Bilbo said pulling a ring of keys out of his jacket and trying each key in the lock.

"How does that help? And where did you get those keys?" Thorin asked, walking up the bars.

"He is a burglar, Thorin. I know you haven't thought much of him, but don't underestimate him too much," Daisy chided.

"There is a great feast tonight, and everyone will be at it. And I got the keys from two elves who drunk themselves to sleep down in the cellars," Bilbo explained.

Bilbo finally found the right key and let them out, locking the door behind them. He then proceeded to go to the cells of the other dwarves and let them out as well. Every noise the dwarves made echoed loudly to Bilbo, but all of the elves were feasting in the great hall, so he could put some of his worries to rest.

They made it to the cellars without problem, but now the issue was getting the dwarves into the barrels.

"Hold up, you never said we would be _in_ the barrels!" they protested.

"How else are we going to get down? If you have a problem with it I can always take you back to you cells," Bilbo huffed.

This effectively shut them up. Each dwarf chose an empty barrel for themselves and hopped in while Bilbo went around packing straw in them to make them more comfortable. The dwarves grumbled a little, but all were glad to be on the way out.

Thorin and Daisy were among the last to be packed in. "Hey Daisy, you look a little pale, are you alright?" Kili asked her.

Thorin resisted the urge to glare or snap at his nephew; he had to remember that he did not have a monopoly on her, despite the fact she had been all his the past few weeks.

Daisy smiled weakly. "Most hobbits do not like water, and few know how to swim," she said.

Kili reached out an arm from his barrel and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "It'll be alright, soon enough we'll be out of it. Bilbo has taken good care of us so far, and I expect he will continue to do so," he comforted her.

Thorin allowed himself a glare at Kili, but then it was Kili's turn to be packed in and Kili missed it.

Not long after all the dwarves were packed the elves came down to send the barrels back down the river. They waked the two that had fallen asleep, and then got to work.

"Some of these feel a little heavy, are you sure they're empty?" one of the elves asked.

Thorin held his breath. He had no idea what they would do if they were discovered.

"Yes, these are the ones marked to be sent back, so they will be sent back!" another answered.

And so twelve dwarves and two hobbits escaped the home of the elf king unnoticed, sent down the river and on their way in empty barrels.

_**Sorry it's taken so long to update! School has really been kicking my rear end and I haven't had enough time to write as much on this as I would have liked. **_

_**But I did get it up at last! Please review as well **_____


	15. Laketown

Daisy hated riding in the barrel. The lid was on tight so there were no leaks, but she was still tossed all about in the barrel. It was her worst nightmare, the one she never knew she had but when experiencing it, nothing could be worst. There was very little straw left by the time it was her turn to be packed in; she was pretty sure Kili had managed to grab several extra handfuls.

None of that mattered now. Now all Daisy could think of was when she would be getting out of this blasted barrel. The bobbing motion of the barrel in the calmer waters was much like that of a boat, and the great majority of hobbits hated boats. It didn't take long for her to become river-sick, and it was all she could do to not lose the contents of her stomach.

After what felt like days, there was a soft tapping at the top of her barrel.

"Is anyone in here?" Bilbo whispered.

"Yes, it's me!"

Bilbo then rolled the barrel onto the shore, and pulled the lid off. Daisy weakly crawled out. She looked around and saw other dwarves laying around in a similar state to her. Some were definitely better off than others, and Daisy could see she was one of the better ones.

"If you can, will you help me get the others out?" Bilbo asked.

Daisy shoved herself up; not many of the dwarves were willing to move, and Bilbo did need help. They finally freed everyone from their barrels. Bilbo counted the dwarves to make sure, and came up one dwarf short.

"I'll look among the other barrels for Thorin," Daisy volunteered. "You help the others get warm."

Bilbo went to start a fire, and Daisy went to the empty barrels. Once she studied them for a moment, she noticed one sat lower in the water than the others. This one had to have Thorin in it. She pulled it into the shallows of the river, but wasn't strong enough to pull it onto the bank. Daisy pulled the lid off, and sure enough, Thorin was inside all slumped over.

"Thorin!" Daisy called, trying to wake him. It didn't work.

She tried to reach in and shake him, but she ended up tipping the barrel over. The cold water shocked Thorin awake, and he fell out of the barrel much like Daisy had. Daisy tried to help him up, as his legs were shaky, but Thorin was much larger than Daisy. He fell over on her, sending them both into the cold water. After flailing around like this several times, Thorin finally found his legs and needed only minimal support from Daisy to make it to the fire Bilbo made.

They warmed up, but they were still hungry.

"We will need to go to the men of Laketown," Bilbo said in response to the problem. Thorin saw the practicality of this and agreed to go with him. Fili and Kili came as well. Of all the dwarves, they were the most mobile at the moment.

Daisy stayed behind to look after the other dwarves trying to keep warm. Within the hour men from Laketown on boats found them, led by Bilbo. The dwarves and Daisy were loaded into the boats and taken into the town and cared for.

There was a great celebration in the town at the arrival of Thorin and the dwarves. There was a great feast and for the first time since Beorn's everyone was able to eat their full, especially the hobbits.

Luckily Daisy did not come down with a cold like Bilbo did. She took to wandering around Laketown, and lent a hand wherever she could. She found many people were curious about her. The people knew what dwarves looked like, but they had never seen a hobbit before. Daisy indulged them, answering any questions they had.

"You really shouldn't go out as much, it's dangerous," Thorin stopped her as she left her room in the Master's house to go walk the streets.

"It is not dangerous, none of these people would do me harm, Thorin," Daisy said, ignoring Thorin's wishes and walking down the hallway to leave the house.

"I know they wouldn't hurt you on purpose, but you are much smaller than them. It would be easy for you to be trampled underfoot, or for you to become lost. You never take any of the company with you, so if something did happen, we wouldn't know," Thorin said following her. He was surprised how fast such a small woman could move.

"Thorin, after everything I've been through with this company, I can't believe you think I would get lost. But if you're really that concerned, just come with me," she argued.

"Now?" Thorin stopped.

"Yes, now. I'm going out now, and of all the company, you're the closest," Daisy said, walking back to his side.

"I can't, I need to get back to planning things for our trip up the River Running to the Lonely Mountain," Thorin tried to make the excuse.

"You've been doing that for the past several days, you need to get out. You're basically a legend to them; come with me and meet a few of your admirers," Daisy said taking his hand and leading him out onto the street.

Thorin let Daisy lead him through the streets. He was surprised to see how she interacted with the humans. They were so much bigger and foreign to her, but she greeted those she had become friends with warmly, and soon made friends with those she didn't know yet.

The children were fascinated by her, and she let them approach and be curious, as any child would be by a creature that was old enough to be its parent but was barely taller than it. They were also curious about him as well. The children had seen the dwarves enter the city, but few had been seen after that, as they tended to keep to themselves. Thorin tried to endure them as patiently as Daisy did, but found his patience wearing thin when the younger ones started pulling on the braids he had. Daisy was quick to shoo them away after that.

Later, back in his room, Thorin couldn't help but think back on his trip into the town with Daisy. The skill and tolerance she had shown with the humans and children would make her a good queen. A good dwarf queen, even if she wasn't his.

_**So I finally got time to write, and now I'm on spring break so I should be writing more this week. Yay! **_

_**Please review as well **_____


	16. The Mountain

The company stayed in Laketown only a few days. After that, Thorin was anxious to get started, and Durin's day was fast approaching.

The master of the town was not sorry to see them go; most work had been suspended as if on holiday. He was master of the town for a reason, and he knew the way to run things. Everyone celebrating thirteen dwarves and two hobbits going up to the mountain to die was not the way. But he gave the dwarves supplies and ponies and sent them on their way.

As they traveled up the river, Thorin's excitement grew and it was hard for the rest of the company to not be affected by it. Even Bilbo and Daisy found themselves eager to get a glimpse of the vast treasure they had heard only tales of.

It took a couple of days to reach the mountain. The first view the hobbits had of it was breathtaking. A single, solitary peak stood in the middle of a wasteland, with a thin column of black smoke rising from the front gate. The dwarves avoided this gate, and set of camp on the side of the mountain high above it.

From there they searched for the secret door. They had a general idea where it was, but since it was closed it looked just like the rest of the mountain side. Somewhere along the way, Bilbo had become something of an expert on Thorin's map. He studied it whenever he could, and in the end it was he who discovered the door.

While they were resting, he discovered roughly hewn steps on the side of the mountain leading upwards. Excitedly, he and the dwarves followed it. Following it they came to a ledge, and on the ledge they found a steep walled grassy bay. It could not be seen from below due to the overhang of the cliff. Although there was nothing there to indicate it was a door, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was the hidden door they were looking for.

They tried to mine with their picks at the door, but whatever they tried was useless. The only thing that could possibly budge it would be Durin's day, but in their travels they had lost track of the weeks, and no one was quite sure when it would be, or even if it would happen this year. As rare as it was to get the sun and moon in the sky at the same time, there was no guarantee it would happen on the last day of autumn.

But it did. Once again it was Bilbo who noticed. All day long a thrush had been cracking snail shells on the wall, annoying the living daylights out of everyone. Dwalin threatened to take it out, but he was stopped by Balin, who claimed they were kindly birds. It was as the thrush knocked that Bilbo noticed the sliver of the moon in the fading sunset.

Bilbo shouted for everyone to come up to the ledge, while he stared at the sunset. They waited, and nothing happened. The sun set and still nothing happened. Then, a last ray of light shone through the clouds and pierced the wall behind them, and a hole in the wall was illuminated.

"The key! The key!" Bilbo cried. "Where is the key? The key that went with the map!"

Thorin ran up and pushed the key in, opening the door.

They sat in the dark, debating what to do. It was at last decided that Bilbo would go down that night.

"Now who is coming with me?" Bilbo asked. He did not expect anyone to come, but it never hurt to ask.

Like he thought, no one volunteered. Fili and Kili looked around uncomfortably, but the others made no signs.

"I'll come with you, Bilbo," Daisy offered.

"Absolutely not!"

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Thorin and Bilbo said at the same time.

"You asked if anyone would come!" she protested.

"I know, but its best you stay behind," Bilbo said.

Bilbo went down the tunnel, and Balin went part of the way down with him.

Daisy waited with the rest, telling herself not to pout. They waited anxiously, eager to hear news of what was down there.

Around an hour later, Bilbo came back, bearing a giant, two handled cup. The dwarvs oooed and awwed at it, and Daisy couldn't help but join in; it was truly magnificent.

Then there was a roaring like thunder, and Bilbo yelled for everyone to get inside and shut the door. No sooner had they done that, there was a terrible crashing going about outside. Smaug had found them out.

When he left, they knew they were in a tight spot. They waited though the night, half expecting the dragon to come back.

Daisy leaned against the wall between Bilbo and Thorin, and, weary from the day's excitement and heard searching, found herself falling asleep.

Over the course of the night, Thorin became aware of a body leaning on him. Daisy was sitting on that side. Why was Daisy leaning on him? He felt her slow, even breaths on his arm. Oh, she was sleeping. She was probably the only one who was.

As the night passed, Thorin heard the breathing of the others even out as well. He soon fell asleep as well, his head resting on top of Daisy's.

In the morning they decided Bilbo would go down again. This time the result was even worse, as instead of returning with more of the treasure, Bilbo returned with a singed back. And Smaug ravaged the mountainside once more, and then he flew off.

The dwarves and two hobbits waited in the dark for what felt like ages. Finally they could take it no more and they all went down to explore, for Smaug was not back yet.

They explored the treasure with torches for a while, then the good hobbit sense of Bilbo and Daisy demanded searching for other things, like food and water. Plus they felt they had tempted luck too long.

Thorin then led them through the halls to the front gate. The front gate seemed too dangerous a place to stop, so Balin led them to a watch tower he remembered from the days of his youth that still remained. There they waited for a sign of the dragon.

_**Sorry for another filler chapter, but it had to be done. As a heads up, the big reveal will happen either next chapter or the one after, depending on how much more stuff needs to be filled in. So have some patience, I've had it planned since early on, it just took some time getting there. **_

_**As always, please review! **_____


	17. Betrayal

They waited at the watch tower for whatever news could be had. There were many ravens that lived in the area. At times they could be annoying, and Fili and Kili started throwing rocks at them for sport.

"Don't do that! The ravens used to speak to us, and would carry messages for us," Balin stopped them.

After that a very old raven flew up to them, led by one of the younger ones. This raven still knew the speech Balin spoke of. The Raven told them of Smaug's destruction of Laketown and death. The dwarves were heartened at this news, but then they learned of the army of elves and men that were coming to the mountain to lay claim to the treasure they now thought was unguarded.

Thorin lost no time in sending messages to Dain in the Iron Hills, asking for help. The old raven did not seem to approve of this plan, but did as Thorin asked. Bilbo and Daisy did not think this was the wisest course either. They numbered only 15, no match for an army. And even if the dwarves from the Iron Hills didn't manage to reach them before the army did, there would still be bloodshed for the elves and men would not let reinforcements through without a fight.

The dwarves returned to the mountain once they knew there was no threat of the dragon returning. There they waited for the army to come and sent messages to Dain. It wasn't long before they started to run low on supplies.

Finally the army of elves and men arrived. They were surprised to find Thorin and the company still alive, but adjusted their plans well. All they wanted was a fraction of the treasure to rebuild the town since Smaug destroyed it.

Thorin, sick with gold fever, refused.

The days passed slowly after that. They received news that Dain was near, but he would never be able to reach the mountain through the army. Thorin and the rest sorted through the treasure, always looking for the Arkenstone.

"It is worth more than a river of gold, and to me it is beyond price. That stone of all the treasure I name unto myself, and I will be avenged on anyone who finds it and withholds it," Thorin said.

That night Thorin, Fili, and Kili stayed up late making plans. Bilbo and Daisy slept near each other, as most of the dwarves were caught up in the love of crafted things.

Daisy felt Bilbo stir in the middle of the night.

"Bilbo, where are you going?" she asked him.

Bilbo startled, clutching something wrapped in an old blanket. "I'm going to try to resolve this, Daisy. Please don't say anything," he whispered back.

Daisy nodded and lay back down, falling back into dreams of a horrible battle.

The next morning trumpets rang out early. A messenger was seen hurrying up the narrow path toward the gate. Stopping a safe distance away, he hailed them, asking whether Thorin would listen to another embassy since some news had come to hand and matters had changed.

"Dain must be here, or they have got word of him. I thought that might change their moods!" Thorin said proudly when he heard. "Only if they come few and weaponless, will I hear!" Thorin called down to the messenger.

Around midday a group of about twenty approached, Bard, the man who killed Smaug, and Thranduil the elven king were among them. In front of them was an old man wrapped in a cloak and bearing a casket of iron bound wood.

"Hail Thorin! Are you still of the same mind?" Bard greeted him.

"My mind doesn't change with the rising and settings of a few suns," Thorin said.

"Is there nothing you would trade any of your gold for?"

"Nothing you can give me!"

"What about the Arkenstone of Thrain?"

At that moment the old man opened the casket and held up the stone. The jewel shone like a star descended to earth in the light of the sun.

Thorin was dumbfounded. It was a long moment before he spoke.

"That stone was my father's, and it is mine," Thorin's voice was thinks with wrath. "Why should I purchase my own?"

Wonder came over Thorin as he thought about it, "But how did you come by the heirloom of my house- if there is need to ask such a question of thieves?"

"We are not thieves. Your own we will give back to you in exchange for our own," Bard answered.

Daisy gasped. The Arkenstone was roughly the size of the rag covered thing Bilbo had snuck away with last night.

"How came you by it!?" Thorin shouted in a growing rage.

Bilbo started to step forward. Daisy knew Thorin was not above hurting Bilbo in the rage he was in, but he might be kinder toward her.

"I gave it to them," Daisy stepped in front of Bilbo.

"What?" Thorin was dumbfounded for the second time in less than an hour.

Daisy raised her head and looked him in the eye. "I gave them then Arkenstone," she repeated.

"I don't believe that, who really gave it?" he growled.

"I gave it to them!" Bilbo said, hating how his voice squeaked a little bit.

"Now that I believe!" Thorin cried striding up to Bilbo and grasping him with both hands. "You miserable hobbit! You undersized- burglar!" he shouted, shaking Bilbo like a rabbit.

"Durin's beard, I wish Gandalf were here, curse him for his choice of you! May his beard wither! As for you, I will throw you down to the rocks!" he cried lifting Bilbo in his arms.

"Thorin, no!" Daisy cried running to him and grasping his arm.

"Stop! Your wish is granted," said the old man holding the casket. It was Gandalf. "If you don't like my burglar, don't damage him. At least hear what he has to say."

Thorin put Bilbo down, "Speak," he ordered.

"Oh dear, this is all very awkward. Well you said I could choose my own fourteenth, and I did. I chose the Arkenstone, and disposed of it how I wished, and let it go at that."  
"I will let you go at that, and may we never meet again! Get down to your friends, or I will throw you down," Thorin said grimly.

Bilbo swung down from the wall, carrying nothing except the mail on his back that Thorin had given him earlier.

"And you, why would you try to protect him? I would expect more from someone bearing the Mark of Durin," Thorin turned to Daisy.

"Really? Bilbo was trying to help you! If it came to a fight, all of us would be killed, and the food we have won't last forever. Bilbo was doing what he could to end this peacefully!"

"You have betrayed us as well, leave with your brother!"

"Have I, Thorin? Everything Bilbo or I have done we did to help you. Through everything that's happened, I've always had your back, and you've _always_ been by my side, even before the journey actually started. Does it make sense for me to 'betray' you now? Just think about it Thorin, think about what I've said," Daisy said softly, swinging herself over the edge of the wall and climbing down to stand by Bilbo's side.

Back in the mountain Thorin fumed. He knew it was a bad idea to take the hobbits with them, he didn't even want to bring Bilbo. Daisy he was more receptive to, though he didn't know why. So he thought about her parting words. It really didn't make sense for her to go against him. And why did she stress the word 'always' when she mentioned him being by her side. He wasn't always quite by her side, so why did she say that? Daisy also said something about having his back.

Then it hit him.

"Balin! Come check my back!" Thorin shouted suddenly, startling the dwarves.

"Is something wrong, Thorin?" Balin asked concerned.

"Just check it!" he ordered, lifting up his shirt.

Balin took a look and gasped.

"What does it say?" Thorin asked through clenched teeth.

All the dwarves gathered round at their king's outburst, and were just as speechless as Balin.

"What does it say!" he roared.

"Daisy," Fili and Kili breathed.

_**So Thorin finally figured it out! Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, we should see Daisy and Thorin reunited in the next one, but alas school starts back up for me so it'll be at least a week before the next chapter **____**. Anyways, hopefully the big reveal was all you wanted and more.**_

_**Reviews are always welcome **____**.**_


	18. Bargaining

The messenger entered the tent where Gandalf, Bard, and Thranduil were discussing what must be done about the stubborn dwarf king. Bilbo and Daisy were with them as well, since they were the ones who knew Thorin the best.

"Just wait, Bard, give Thorin a few days to cool down, then he will be more willing to trade for the Arkenstone," Gandalf said. The three were so intent on their discussion that none of them noticed the messenger. Bilbo and Daisy noticed of course, but they themselves were overlooked since they were quite smaller than the men and elf.

"Sirs, a message from the dwarf king," the messenger spoke up.

Gandalf's eyes went straight to the hobbits, slightly suspicious at their nonchalant attitude.

"Well, what is it then?" Bard asked impatiently.

"Thorin Oakenshield demands the return of the hobbit woman, Daisy."

"But that makes no sense, only a few hours ago he all but threw her out of the mountain after her brother! Why would he all of a sudden want her back?" Bard exclaimed.

"Maybe he got a bit…lonely. They were quite close when they were visiting my halls, even asking to share the same room," Thranduil smirked.

That earned Thranduil a deep glare from the small hobbit woman. "I can assure you that is not the case, Mr. Thranduil. And the reason we shared was it is better to be imprisoned in a cell with a friend than all alone." The smirk was gone from the elf king's face.

"And you can take the message that I will not be coming back," she said to the messenger.

The messenger turned to leave.

"Stay just a moment more, will you?" Gandalf said.

"Now Daisy, does Thorin _know_?" Gandalf asked with a pointed look.

"I'm guessing he does now, why else would he demand me back?" she answered.

"Wait, know what? What secrets are you keeping, wizard?" Bard demanded.

Gandalf sighed and turned to Daisy, "Do you mind?"

Daisy shook her head 'no'.

"Daisy, here, bears the Mark of Durin, and is intended for Thorin Oakenshield. It would appear he has just figured that out, and wants her back within the safety of the mountain," Gandalf explained.

"The Mark of Durin…" Thranduil mused stepping closer to her. "You know, we could use her as a bargaining chip instead of the Arkenstone."

"There's no need for that Thranduil, Thorin already promised to send the gold and silver down," Gandalf said.

"But how do we know he will actually send it? It's been several hours and nothing has been sent. I say we give him a bit more of an incentive."

"No, I refuse to be used as a bargaining chip. If you try any of that, then I will go back to the mountain before you can get a proper hold on me."

"So what exactly is the Mark of Durin?" Bard asked, quite confused.

"The Mark of Durin indicates the most suitable companion for an heir of Durin. It appears as the name of the other in dwarf ruins on the side or back," Thranduil explained, eyeing Daisy.

"It is very similar to the human concept of soul mates," Gandalf furthered.

"So how is it Thorin is just now finding out?"

"I didn't say anything because I didn't want to complicate things. I originally was going to tell him once everything was over with. Then he accused my brother, and then myself of being traitors the whole time, which was ridiculous, so I gave him a hint about it right before I left."

"And now he wants you back, and you don't wish to go, but it would appear you love each other. Will you ever go back to him?" Bard asked.

"He's not himself, Mr. Bard, it's the gold sickness. I don't know exactly how it works, but if by my leaving he is shocked out of it, then I'll take it. Maybe one day I'll go back to him, but for now I will wait and see how this goes along, and then go back to the Shire."

"So tell Thorin that through the messenger, that you're going back home because of his gold sickness," Bilbo said.

"Yes, but not just yet."

"So what would you like the message to say?" the messenger asked respectfully.

Daisy thought for a moment. "Tell him that I will not come back, and if he has an issue with it, he can come talk to me in person about it."

The messenger disappeared through the flap in the tent.

Thorin fumed in the halls of the mountain. How dare she hide that important fact from him! If he had known, he never would've let her out of his sight. He would've showered her in jewels like she deserved to be as his Durin's mark. But he sent for her to come back, so soon everything would be fine. He would say he shouldn't have sent her away when she didn't do anything, and she would forgive him. It was just her blasted brother he had to deal with. He hoped for the burglar's sake he never saw him again.

"Thorin, the messenger's back," Balin said, coming to fetch Thorin.

Thorin hurried up with Balin, his heart racing the whole way. _Daisy Daisy Daisy_ it echoed in his ears.

They reached the gate with the rest of the company present, enticed by the promise of the return of one of the hobbits they were quite fond of, and saw only one figure down below. And it wasn't Daisy.

"Where is she?" Thorin shouted down to him.

"I have a message from her, she-"

"Is she being locked up like the elves did us? Why won't you release her to me?" Thorin raged.

"I have a message from her," the messenger shouted up to the irate 'king' as calmly as possible.

"Well what are you waiting for!?"

The messenger took a deep breath to calm himself; all nobles were the same, getting mad when they didn't let him do his job and blaming it on him.

"She says she won't be coming back.."

"And why not!"

"Lady Daisy also said that you could talk to her about it in person if you had an issue with it," he finished.

"No! She can come back here!"

"Sir, you will have to take that up with her, I only deliver the messages." With that the messenger turned away and jogged back to the camp, done with having to deal with the idiot gold crazed royal dwarves and their Durin's marks.

Back in the camp there was a great commotion, for an army of dwarves could be seen getting closer and closer. It was Dain's army.

_**So I finally updated, yay! School is now out for me, so this should be wrapping up within the next few weeks.**_

_**Please review! **___


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